Evaluation 2

BES-127
Assessment for
Indira Gandhi Learning
National Open University
School of Education
Block
2
TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS OF
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
UNIT 5
Techniques of Assessment and Evaluation 5
UNIT 6
Criteria of a Good Tool 21
UNIT 7
Tools for Assessment and Evaluation 44
UNIT 8
ICT Based Assessment and Evaluation 64
EXPERT COMMITTEE
Prof. I. K. Bansal (Chairperson) Prof. Anju Sehgal Gupta
Former Head, Department of Elementary School of Humanities,
Education, NCERT, New Delhi IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof. Shridhar Vashistha Prof. M. C. Sharma (Retd.)
Former Vice-Chancellor B.Ed. Prog. Coordinator till 31.3.17
Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit School of Education
Vidhyapeeth, New Delhi IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof. N. K. Dash
Prof. Parvin Sinclair School of Education
Former Director, NCERT IGNOU, New Delhi
School of Sciences,
IGNOU, New Delhi Dr. Gaurav Singh
(Programme Co-coordinator-B.Ed.)
Prof. Aejaz Masih School of Education
Faculty of Education, IGNOU, New Delhi
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Prof. Pratyusha Kumar Mandal
DESSH, NCERT, New Delhi
SPECIAL INVITEES (Faculty of School of Education)
Prof. D. Venkateshwarlu Dr. Bharti Dogra
Prof. Amitav Mishra Dr. Vandana Singh
Ms. Poonam Bhushan Dr. Niradhar Dey
Dr. Eisha Kannadi Dr. Elizabeth Kuruvilla
Dr. M. V. Lakshmi Reddy
Programme Coordinators: Prof Saroj Pandey, (From April, 2017) and

Dr. Gaurav Singh, SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi
Course Coordinator: Dr. Niradhar Dey, SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi
COURSE PREPARATION TEAM
Course Writers Content Editing
Prof. SVS Chaudhary
Unit 5 Dr. Elizabeth Kuruvilla SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi
SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi
Language Editing
Unit 6 Dr. Niradhar Dey Dr. Y. Nirmala
SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi
Unit 7 Dr. Gaurav Rao Proof Reading
Dept of Edu., CSJM University, Dr. Niradhar Dey
Kanpur SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi
Unit 8 Dr. Ajith Ku. C.
SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi
PRINT PRODUCTION
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October, 2017
 Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2017
ISBN: 978-81-266-
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BES 127 ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING
BLOCK 1 Evaluation in Teaching-Learning Process
Unit 1 Concept and Purpose of Evaluation
Unit 2 Perspectives of Assessment
Unit 3 Approaches to Evaluation
Unit 4 Issues, Concerns and Trends in Assessment and Evaluation
Block 2 Techniques and Tools of Assessment and Evaluation

Unit 5 Techniques of Assessment and Evaluation
Unit 6 Criteria of a Good Tool
Unit 7 Tools for Assessment and Evaluation
Unit 8 ICT Based Assessment and Evaluation
Block 3 Learner’s Evaluation

Unit 9 Teacher Made Achievement Tests
Unit 10 Commonly Used Tests in Schools
Unit 11 Identification of Learning Gaps and Corrective Measures
Unit 12 Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation
Block 4 Analysing and Interpreting Learner’s Performance

Unit 13 Tabulation and Graphical Representation of Data
Unit 14 Measures of Central Tendency
Unit 15 Measures of Dispersion
Unit 16 Correlation: Importance and Interpretation
Unit 17 Nature of Distribution and Its Interpretation
BLOCK 2 TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS OF
ASSESSMENT AND
EVALUATION
Introduction to the Block
This Block consists of four units dealing with various techniques and tools of
assessment and evaluation used in the process of teaching-learning. The Block
starts with the Unit, ‘Techniques of Assessment and Evaluation’ which
deals with the conceptual discussions of understanding various techniques
used in evaluation. The major techniques of evaluation such as self-report
techniques, assignments, observations, peer-assessment, socio-metric techniques,
portfolio, seminar, and cooperative learning and social skills are briefly discussed
in this Unit.
Unit-6 of this Block, titled, ‘Criteria of a Good Tool’ elaborately discusses
the essential features of an effective tool. More specifically, it focuses on the
criteria of a test namely reliability, validity, usability, objectivity, and norm. The
Unit helps the learners to develop conceptual understanding on the above criteria
and also equally empower them to determine reliability, validity and other qualities
of a tool.
Unit-7 of this Block, entitled, ‘Tools for Assessment and Evaluation’ which
discusses the tests and tools used in the process of teaching and learning for
assessment. The Unit starts with a discussion on various types of tests such
as paper-pencil test, performance test, aptitude test, achievement test, diagnostic-
remedial test and also intelligence test. The Unit also critically discusses the tools
used in assessment such as rating scales, questionnaire, inventories, checklists,
interview and observation schedule. The Unit ends with a discussion on
alternatives to traditional evaluation such as anecdotal records, learners portfolio
and rubrics.
The Eights Unit, ‘ICT Based Assessment and Evaluation’ deals mostly with
the use of technology in the process of evaluation. It critically discusses the
importance of ICT in the process of assessment and it also discusses the
role of teachers in technology-based evaluation. The Unit also broadly discusses
the online examination system, preparing online tools for examinations, use of
e-portfolios and e-rubrics for assessment. The Unit gives a complete out look
to use the free online sources for preparing tests, administer them online and
also to analyse the results.
Techniques of Assessment
UNIT 5 TECHNIQUES OF and Evaluation
ASSESSMENT AND
EVALUATION
Structure
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Objectives
5.3 Purpose of Assessment and Evaluation
5.4 Techniques of Assessment and Evaluation
5.4.1 Concept Tests
5.4.2 Self-report Techniques
5.4.3 Assignments
5.4.4 Observation Technique
5.4.5 Peer Assessment
5.4.6 Sociometric Technique
5.4.7 Portfolios
5.4.8 Project Work
5.4.9 Debate
5.4.10 School Club Activities
5.5 Assessment of Group Processes

5.5.1 Cooperative Learning and Social Skills
5.5.2 Seminar and Reports as Assessment Techniques
5.6 Let Us Sum Up

5.7 References and Suggested Readings
5.8 Answers to Check Your Progress
5.1 INTRODUCTION
In Unit 1, you have studied about the concepts of measurement, assessment
and evaluation and by now, you might be able to differentiate these terms from
one another. Assessment is an integral part and ongoing process in the educational
context. To learn effectively, students need to know as to how they are
performing. Similarly, to be an effective teacher, you must be informed about
what the student knows, feels, and can do, so that you can help him/her build
on her/his skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Therefore, you and your students
need continuous feedback on their progress and difficulties in order to plan
appropriate learning activities and to make adjustments to those already planned.
Assessment means the way by which teachers and other stakeholders involved
in students’ learning collect information systematically and then use it to know
their level of achievement in academic, behavioural and social areas. In this Unit,
you will study various techniques of evaluation.
5
Techniques and Tools of
Assessment and Evaluation 5.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit you will be able to:
 describe the techniques of assessment and evaluation,
 explain the significance of self-report techniques,
 analyze students’ characteristics through observation,
 use interview as a tool of evaluation,
 recognize the use of assignment as an assessment technique,
 identify the importance of peer ratings,
 conduct socio-metric technique in classroom,
 evaluate project work by using a rubric,
 assess portfolios for understanding students’ progress, and
 evaluate the techniques used for group processes.
5.3 PURPOSE OFASSESSMENT AND

EVALUATION
Let us start with the discussion on the purpose of evaluation. Generally evaluation
is used for the following purposes:
 To assist in student learning: A good evaluation provides information
to teachers about the progress of students’ learning. For students also, it
draws a road map to understand their learning progress.
 To identify students’ strengths and weaknesses: Identification and
assessment of students’ strengths and weaknesses are necessary for two
reasons: i) to structure and restructure the learning activities and ii) to
restructure the curriculum.
 To assess the effectiveness of a particular instructional strategy: It
is important for a teacher to know as to how well a particular teaching
strategy helps to achieve the learning objectives.
 To assess and improve the effectiveness of curriculum programmes:
Components of the curriculum are continually assessed through formative
and summative assessments.
 To assess and improve teaching effectiveness: To enhance student
learning, teachers are continuously evaluated on the basis of a) their
commitment to the job, b) their ability to cope with students of a particular
age, c) their ability to show mastery of appropriate instructional techniques.
 To communicate with and involve parents and guardians in their
childrens’ learning: Parents, guardians and community need to share with
accountability for the effectiveness of learning of the students. Parents or
guardians are eager to know the progress of their children in school.
Evaluation feedback is necessary to communicate to parents, guardians and
the community. For example, distributing progress card of students by
6 conducting a parent-teacher meeting.
Check Your Progress 1 and Evaluation
Note : a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the
unit.
1. Why do teachers use assessment?
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5.4 TECHNIQUES OFASSESSMENT AND

EVALUATION
Assessing students’ performance is an integral part of the teaching-learning
process. For this, you need to adopt various techniques of evaluation. Choice
of evaluation techniques should be aligned with the learning objectives. Students
learn information at different pace. You, as a teacher, have to find out the
extent of students’ learning and the interventions required for facilitating rather
than to master the desired content.
When you assess your students, you collect information about their level of
performance where as in evaluation, you compare a student’s achievement with
other students with a set of standards. Effective assessment is a continuous
process and it is not simply that has to be done at the end of a Unit. Evaluation
is integrated into all aspects of the curriculum, thus providing both students
and teachers useful and relevant data to gauge progress of students. Not only
teachers but also students play an important role in assessing their own learning
progress. While assessing students, you need to keep the following points in
mind:
 Which technique should I use to get the adequate feedback?
 How will I apply this technique in my class?
 Will the assessment technique provides adequate information about what
students are learning in classrooms?
 Does the technique focus on various variables that can be changed to
promote better learning?
 Are the results derived from the use of a particular evaluation tool easy
to analyze?
 How will I know that the technique is useful or not to assess students?
 What effort should I make to arrange better teaching-learning practices
based on the information I received?
In the subsequent section, we will discuss about the various techniques
of evaluation. The various techniques of evaluation are summarized in the
Figure 5.1.
7
Assessment and Evaluation  Concept Tests
 Assignments
 Self report techniques
Techniques of  Reflective Journal
Assessment and  Seminar
Evaluation  Debates
 Project work
 Club Activities
Figure 5.1: Techniques of Assessment and Evaluation
5.4.1 Concept Tests
Concept tests are informal and short tests are conducted by teachers to evaluate
students’ understanding of key concepts. These tests can be used to assess
students’ previous knowledge about a concept or after the instruction. In this
technique, class time is divided between short lectures and conceptual multiple-
choice questions. In the concept test, the understanding of students about the
basic concepts are evaluated. These questions are framed to assess students’
understanding of the principal concepts in the content. Next, let us discuss how
to design a concept test.
Frame a question that describes an event, problem or situation. Read the
following example:
Example: This problem is designed to help students understand the

functioning of the circulatory system in the human body. Suppose
you are staying on the second floor of the building and due to low
pressure of the water, the water reaching the taps in your floor is
not sufficient. Then you are advised to install water pump at your
house. Predict:
- What will happen?
- What if there is any blockage in the water pipes supplying water
to your house taps?
- Which concept is relevant here?
(Source: Dogra, B., 2010)
In the above example, the teacher presented a situation and then asks some
questions related to prediction, problem-solving and clarification of concept. Such
kind of test helps you to know how much your students attain understanding
of concepts.
5.4.2 Self-report Techniques
Self-report techniques are data gathering tools where respondents provide
information about themselves. There are various self-reporting techniques such
as interview, diaries, questionnaire, reflective journal, etc. These techniques are
widely used to assess various traits or attitudes possessed by the individuals.
Though these are subjective techniques, they provide means for extracting the
hidden treasure of one’s own behaviours and patterns of personality. Let us
discuss in detail about the various self-reporting techniques such as interview,
focus group discussion, questionnaire and reflective journal.
Interview: An interview is a data collection method through which an interviewer
8
asks questions to an interviewee on a particular topic. It can be semi-structured
or structured and may use different media (e.g., phone, e-mail, and in person). Techniques of Assessment
and Evaluation
In semi-structured interview, the interviewer has an idea about the types of
questions but the order and way of asking questions may vary. A structured
interview on the other hand, is a specified set of questions that are asked in
the same order during each interview. Interviewing is considered as an
interpersonal encounter. Establishing rapport is an important element in interviewing.
Keeping impartiality to the responses given by the interviewee is important;
otherwise it leads to bias responses.
During interviewing, you may know whether the student understands a particular
concept. The student may be asked to give a personal explanation of a specific
concept and to use that concept to solve a problem. Through this technique,
besides getting information, it is also possible to observe a student’s body
language and facial expressions. For assessment purpose, interview may serve
the following functions:
 to identify the areas of difficulty and gaps in understanding a concept among
students,
 to understand how students are able to apply their knowledge in new
situations,
 to examine how students’ understanding change with teaching-learning
process,
 to obtain verbal feedback about teaching techniques, new concepts, etc.
Through the feedback received from students, you may be able to refine your
teaching along with assessing the understanding level of students.
Focus group discussion: It is a systematically planned discussion led by the
teacher who acts as a moderator to collect detailed information on a particular
topic. In focus group discussion, a moderator leads the discussion with a small
group of individuals to analyze in detail the thinking and feeling of the group
members about a topic. It is called ‘focus group’ because the moderator keeps
the individuals in the group focused on a particular topic taken for discussion.
The moderator generates group discussion through the use of open-ended
questions, and he/she acts as a facilitator of the group process. It is used for
multiple purposes as follows:
 Generating new ideas and concepts,
 Obtaining general background information about a topic of interest,
 Generating research hypotheses that can be submitted to further research,
 Diagnosing the problem in a new way,
 Examining how respondents talk about the selected topic, and
 Interpreting previously obtained results.
You might be thinking how an interview differs from a focus group discussion.
In interview, the interviewer has a prominent role in asking specific questions.
The depth of information received from an interview is less. In the case of focus
group discussion, the number of participants varies from four to eight members
and you will get a great deal of information.
Questionnaire: A questionnaire is a self-report data collection technique that
each participant fills out in the given form. There are open-ended and closed-
ended questionnaires. Through questionnaires, one can obtain information about
the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, personality, and 9
Techniques and Tools of behavioural intentions of participants. Open-ended questions are valuable when
Assessment and Evaluation
the researcher needs to know what people are thinking. Such questions help
the interviewer to understand participants’ inner worlds in their natural languages
and categories.
When do we use questionnaires?
Questionnaires will be used for the following purposes:
 To collect feedback from a large number of students,
 To know students’ opinions, attitudes, feelings and perception about a
particular issue, and
 To allow each student to give anonymous feedback.
Reflective Journal: Reflective journal is a tool where students can reflect on
and write about their progress in learning. They can write their achievements
and difficulties in learning. Students can write whatever they found to be
innovative or what made them think and ponder about their learning experiences.
Journal writing is a non-threatening way to get information about students’ thinking
and feeling. The following points give you an idea about how to use and what
to be included in the journal.
 When should I use it?
 Daily or weekly
 How could I use it?
 As a self- assessment tool for students
 At the beginning or end of a unit, topic or project
 As a communication tool for students and teachers
 Why should I use it?
 It enhances higher order thinking
 It leads to self-assessment
 It sets goals for future learning
 It gives students a sense of ownership and control on their own learning
Students’ reflective thinking can be supported by giving opportunities to reflect
on their own learning and their own context of learning. Thereby, it promotes
students’ responsibility of learning. Reflective journal permits students to practice
their writing skill in a free environment that encourages critical thinking. In this
way, reflective journals can be used as an assessment tool that provides teachers
an insight into how students value their own learning and achievement.
Check Your Progress 2

unit.
2. Explain how self reporting techniques can be used as assessment tools.
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10
5.4.3 Assignments and Evaluation
Assignments are teacher-assigned task that students are expected to complete

during or after the school hours and enable to assess students’ understanding.
It is essential to keep in mind that class-appropriate assignments may be chosen
for your students. For first-or second class students, hands-on-activities are more
preferable than paper-and-pencil assignments. The time required for assignments
should be set based on the age of the children. If you want to give a
comprehensive project as an assignment, consider breaking it into manageable
sections with due dates. The types of assignments you give should motivate
the students. Through this technique, you can find out students’ perspective,
their interest and learning levels. The students’ progress in learning, their
understanding and critical thinking can also be assessed through assignments.
5.4.4 Observation Technique

As prospective teachers, you might have observed students while they solve
problems, interact with peers in different learning situations or in the playground.
It provides insight into student learning and growth. Observation is used as a
technique to evaluate various aspects of behaviour in controlled or uncontrolled
situations. Through observation, behaviour is captured in a particular situation.
It is a means of first hand information as experienced at a specific moment.
It is pre-planned and purposeful activity that provides immediate recording of
events. With the help of observation checklists, teachers could record information
quickly. The reliability of observation can be increased by repeated observation
or through observation done by many individuals. While preparing observation
checklist, the following points may be kept in mind:
 Write down the criteria to be observed
 Inform students about the criteria to be observed
 Determine the specific outcomes to assess
 Develop a data gathering system such as checklist or rubric or anecdotal
points
 Target observation on one or two specific outcomes
 Record the date of observation
 Share observation details with individuals or target groups
 Use the collected information to modify your instruction.
Observation is an important technique of collecting information about people
because people do not always do what they say. This statement is equivalent
to the maxim in behavioural and social sciences that ‘attitudes and behaviour
are incongruent’. Generally there are two types of observation: i) Participant
observation, and ii) Non-participant observation.
i. Participant observation: In participant observation, the observer becomes
a member of the group. The participant observer plays a dual role such
as becoming a member of the group and observing the participants carefully.
This kind of observation provides reliable results. An advantage of this
technique is that, for ethical reasons, the researcher can request permission
to collect and record data as needed. In addition, the researcher can obtain 11
Techniques and Tools of feedback about his/her observations and tentative conclusions from the
participants. A weakness is that the participants might not behave naturally
because they are aware that they are being observed.
ii. Non-participant observation: In non-participant observation, the observer
observes the group passively from a distance without his/her presence in
the group. Non-participant observation helps in recording and studying the
behaviour of a particular person or group in detail. It is considered as
an unobtrusive method of data collection to study focused aspects of a
setting in order to answer specific questions within a study.
5.4.5 Peer Assessment

It refers to one student or a group of students assessing other students. It
develops interpersonal skills and may help the student to develop an impartial
attitude, improve listening skills, inculcate team spirit, leadership quality and time
management. Students internalize the quality of the work by evaluating the work
of their peers. Peer assessment has its roots in theories of active learning. In
active learning, students involve in doing things and think about the things they
are doing. The learning environment in the classroom should be supportive for
effective peer evaluation. There must be a comfortable and trust atmosphere
to promote constructive feedback. The following table shows the benefits of
peer assessment.
Benefits of peer-assessment
 An educational process that installs autonomy in learners.
 Empowerment of the learner in a learning environment.
 Development of learner confidence in assessing/ marking peers (through
practice).
 Development of learner ability to self-evaluate and reflect.
 Greater understanding of what is required by tutors for assessment at
various levels.
 Interactive classes for marking/feedback.
 Reflection on recently completed assessments with full explanation of
the answer (improving information and understanding).
 Clear, open marking systems (seeing what is required and improving
work).
 Seeing standards set by peers as well as mistakes of others (and
avoiding them in the future).
 Gaining an ability to ‘stand back’ from own work for assessment
purposes (an essential ability of an ‘objective’, ‘unbiased’ scientist).
 Rapid way for a tutor to assess a large amount of student work and
provide specific feedback.
(Source: Langan, Mark A. & Wheater, P., 2003)
12
Check Your Progress 3 and Evaluation

unit.
3. List out the benefits of peer-assessment.
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5.4.6 Sociometric Technique

The sociometric technique gives an objective picture of social relationships in
a classroom. Jacob Levy Moreno developed this technique to study the
relationship between social structures and psychological well-being. The words
‘sociometry’ is originated from Latin word ‘socius’ meaning companion and
‘metrum’ meaning measure. The main purpose of a sociogram is to find out
the basic network of friendship patterns. Another type of information that can
be obtained from a sociogram is to know the relation of any one child to the
group. Through sociogram, you will get greater understanding of group behaviour.
We can construct sociogram in a variety of ways. Now, let us learn the procedure
of constructing a sociogram. The following questions may be asked to the group
members to collect information:
 Who are your three best friends in your class?
 Which three friends in the class would you like to work with in a small
group in your class?
 Which three friends would you like to sit with at lunch time?
 Which three friends would you like to go with for a picnic?
The above questions are examples of a ‘fixed positive nomination technique’.
The term fixed is used in the sense that in the questions, the choices are restricted
to three friends. Through these questions, it is possible to find interpersonal
acceptance among students. In order to find interpersonal rejection, the following
questions may be asked:
 Which three friends do you like the least?
 Which three friends you don’t like to include in your group work?
 Which three friends you don’t like to go with for a picnic?
The study of rejection helps a teacher to know the unfavourable emotional
reaction of students. The graphical representation of relationships between a
specific group is known as sociogram. It is a chart to know the interrelationships
within the group. An example of a sociogram is depicted below:
13
Assessment and Evaluation A
C
D
H
E
F
B
Figure 5.2: Sociogram Showing Pattern of Choices
In the figure 5.2, you notice that student ‘B’ is not selected by others. Hence,
‘B’ is considered as an isolate. Students ‘A’, ‘D’ and ‘E’ choose each other
and thus form a clique. Student ‘E’ is liked by most, thus becoming a star.
Sociogram also provides details about the relationship among the members of
the group. The sociogram, thus helps the teacher to build a supportive learning
environment. Between students ‘C’ and ‘H’, reciprocity is both sided while for
‘E’ and ‘F’ it is one-sided only. Sociometry is thus an important technique for
peer ratings.
Sociometric technique as an assessment technique: You might be thinking

how sociometric technique can be used for assessment purposes. As an
assessment technique, sociometry is useful to assess social behaviour, relatedness
and interpersonal trust that exists within the group. You can use the results of
sociometry for studying social patterns in the group such as acceptance, status,
cohesiveness and different roles. Through sociogram, you can locate sub-groups
and mutual attraction patterns of your classroom. It also helps you to know
interpersonal acceptance-rejection among students. Through sociogram, you will
be aware of the impact of friendships within your classroom, and how it will
affect students’ academic motivation and achievement. While going through the
interpersonal rejection, problems related with academic and socio-emotional
adjustment could be found out. Moreover, peer rejection can be treated as
a predictor of academic dysfunction.
5.4.7 Portfolios
The details of portfolio have been discussed in Unit-7 of this Block. A portfolio
is a systematically organized collection of a student’s work that covers a specific
period of time. It proved to be an excellent vehicle for gathering together student
writing and displaying the changes in the proficiency over a period of time.
Portfolio assessment represents a blend of the instructional process and the
evaluation process. You might know that portfolio is not something static but
it is an ongoing dialogue between teacher and student and, often, between the
individual student and others in the class or between the students and parents.
Components of portfolios will vary depending on the subject that is being taught
and preferences of teachers and students. Portfolios can contain the following
14 items:
 Completed assignments and Evaluation
 Journal writings
 Reflections on discussions that have been held in or out of class
 Photos, sketches, and other visuals
 Summary statements made at different points regarding what has been
learned
 Self-assessment statements
Use of portfolios is consistent with reflective teaching. There is an ongoing

dialogue between the teacher and student that takes the form of written comments
about the materials in the portfolios. Portfolio assessment focuses evaluation of
students’ progress, processes, and performance over a period of time. Generally
there are two basic types of portfolios:
 Process portfolio is used for classroom-level assessment. It reflects both
formative and summative assessments.
 A product portfolio is more summative in nature. It is meant for a major
evaluation and is accompanied by an oral presentation of its contents.
A variety of tasks that elicit planned performance for a variety of purposes
are included in both types of portfolios and demonstrate reflection about learning,
including goal setting and assessment. Portfolios can be used to demonstrate
processes and growth in relation to the selected learning objectives. They can
be used to display 21st century skills such as problem-solving, creativity, and
information literacy. It can also reflect strengths and weaknesses, time management
skills, and meta-cognitive abilities.
On the point of assessment, a portfolio exhibits the progress of students and
provides teachers, students as well as parents the evidence of learning progress.
The overall aim of a portfolio is to provide evidence about a set of learning
objectives mastered by a student. It is a like a personal album containing various
tasks and achievements of a student. It is a symbolic representation of what
the student does know. Student portfolios promote and support student learning
in three ways:
 Students’ is participation in the selection of contents
 Students’ written reflection about learning
 Students’ communication with teachers regarding their reflections
5.4.8 Project Work

Project work allows students to think beyond the limits of classroom and develop
among them various skills, behaviours, inquisitiveness and confidence. Providing
learning environments that allows students to question, analyze, evaluate leads
them to higher-order thinking. The learning that occurs during the process of
project work assesses the skills of collaboration, problem-solving, decision-
making, and communication. As a teacher or prospective teacher, you can also
assess work quality and understanding of students throughout the project-building
process. 15
Techniques and Tools of For example, for Class IX, you have given a group project work on ‘Indian
Rivers and Their Uses’. After assigning the task, you must be continuously
observing the progress of the project work. Next, you have to assess the project
report. How would you assess it? Assessment doesn’t happen at the end of
the task or unit. It is linked with all three learning aspects namely the content,
the process, and the product. It is performance-based and on-going one. We
should give multiple opportunities to students to reflect on their learning. For
assessing a project report, you may develop a rubric. You should not forget
that assessing the project is equally important that of assessing students’
achievement. Hence, your assessment rubric should match to the content and
format of your instruction. The rubric for project work may contain the following
questions:
 Did your rubric contain criteria related with learners’ engagement in a real-
world task?
 Did your rubric have criteria to assess group work?
 Did your rubric assess students’ use of higher-order thinking and problem-
solving skills?
 Did your rubric evaluate the students’ progress throughout the task?
A format of a rubric related to a project work is given below:
Table 5.1: Rubric for ‘Indian Rivers and their Uses
Descriptive Excellent VeryGood Good Poor

Indicators
Content
Different The content is The content is Content has Content is

rivers and its of high quality complete little cover- irrelevant
tributaries and utilizes age
are covered many sources.
Maps Maps are Maps are Maps are No maps are

showing drawn complete vague to prepared
potential properly and understand
uses of rivers include new
and useful
information.
Symbols are
correctly used
Relevance of Content is up- Content is Content lacks No up-to-date

the Content to- date and complete and latest content
creatively have a few information
written. There grammatical and has
are few or errors. numerous
minor gram- grammatical
matical errors. errors.
Process
Use the Students Students Students Students do not

Internet to express the collect the search have the ability
search ability to information content with to use internet to
relevant search for a through minimal search for
information topic by using internet assistance content.
concerning several search
rivers and its engines.
uses
16
Descriptive Excellent VeryGood Good Poor and Evaluation
Indicators
Group All the The Some No group

participation members in the participation of students did participation
group take part group not participate
in the project members is up to their
work satisfactory level
effectively
Outcome/
Product
Presentation Complete Descriptions Incomplete Improper

of content coverage of are complete, presentation presentation of
content, clear and have few and with content
writing, errors. several
relevant grammatical
examples, and errors.
have very few
errors.
Validation of Multiple Validation Efforts are There is no

findings validation techniques are made to validation of
techniques are good and validate the information
used that produce information
produce conclusive but are
summative results. inconclusive
conclusion
Develop a The plan is The plan is The plan is The plan

plan onhow complete, well nearly not currently suggested is not
toprotect organized, and complete and ready to be viable
rivers viable. minimum implemented.
viable.
5.4.9 Debate
Debate is a kind of dialogue about a significant topic. It acts as a useful technique
to promote independent learning about a topic selected for debating. Sometimes
you are familiar with this technique and its procedure. In this technique, you
have to play the role of a moderator. The first task is to decide the topic to
be debated. You have to give an overview of the topic prior to the task being
set. Then you should set the scene and allocate the team. Generally, the ideal
team size is 10, out of which 5 present a case in favour of the topic and the
rest 5 defend the topic. During the conduct of debate you, as a moderator,
can give clear guidelines on the structure of the debate, timings and the roles
to be performed.
The next task is how to evaluate the debate. For evaluation, you can prepare
a rating scale containing the following indicators:
 Relevance of the content
 Presentation style
 Clarity of the argument
 Logical approach
 Quality of the rebuttal
17
Techniques and Tools of This technique develops skills such as listening, rapid response, speaking, and
debating the issues in a professional manner. It also promotes skills such as
team spirit, synthesizing data, negotiation, argumentation, and rebuttal skills.
5.4.10 School Club Activities

You might be familiar with the club activities that have been initiated in your
school. Various disciplines have different school clubs such as literary, science,
social science, mathematics, sports, tourism, aesthetic, etc. Activities such as
quiz competition, seminar, debate, elocution competition, tour, field trip,
gardening, awareness campaigns, are undertaken by these various clubs. Through
these activities, you can assess students’ team spirit, general awareness, self-
discipline, individual and group responsibility, initiation, accountability, endurance,
time management, dignity of labour, sense of engagement and attachment to their
school. By joining clubs, students learn to work together towards a common
goal and learn to respect each other. It gives chance to relieve their stress and
gain confidence in performing various activities. Students will also understand
the process of planning and organizing work.
5.5 ASSESSMENT OF GROUP PROCESSES

Present day classroom instructional strategies emphasize on group work,
collaborative and co-operative learning. Through group work, students’ analytical
and cognitive skills, team work skills, collaborative skills, organizational and time
management skills can be assessed. In the next section, we will discuss how
co-operative learning and seminar help in assessing the students.
5.5.1 Cooperative Learning and Social Skills

The purpose of a cooperative learning group is that individuals within the group
must learn. The achievement of the group then depends on the learning of
individuals within the group. Rather than competing for rewards for achievement,
members of the group cooperate with each other by helping each other to learn.
When small groups of students of mixed backgrounds with their varied, skills
and capabilities work together, their likings and respect increase. As a result,
there is an increase in each student’s self-esteem and academic achievement.
Through cooperative learning, students learn several social skills such as
respecting others’ ideas, sharing materials, taking turns, providing encouragement,
paraphrasing, active listening, managing conflict and building consensus. Working
in groups can provide your students with valuable learning opportunities. They
learn to see other’s point of view and learn from others. Working collaboratively
is an important life skill. Problem-based learning frequently involves elements
of group work and enhanced student learning. During co-operative learning and
post collaborative learning activity, assessment takes place either at the individual
or group levels. While enacting each role, teacher can assess the behaviour
of students.
5.5.2 Seminar and Report as Assessment Techniques

Seminar is an activity where the social skills of students can be enhanced. It
can be done individually or in group. The goal of the group may be pre-
determined by the facilitator or decide by the individual or the group
18 collaboratively. The use of seminar as an assessment tool can be done at three
phases: pre-seminar stage, seminar stage and post seminar stage. During pre- Techniques of Assessment
and Evaluation
seminar stage, students can ponder over the topic, drafting a good seminar topic
and think how to present. During the seminar stage, students present the topic
and in post-seminar stages they reflect on their ideas in the presence of an
audience and finally a seminar report will be prepared. Seminar report is used
as a self assessment tool or as a group assessment tool. While doing self
assessment, a student examines the feedback given by others and how his/her
paper could be improved for the next time. The facilitator’s assessment indicators
may consist of the following:
 Understanding of concept
 Critical thinking and reasoning
 Ability to build new knowledge
 Self-confidence and self-discipline
 Presentation style
After the seminar presentation, assessment of the reports can be made based
on the following indicators:
 Clarity of presentation
 Accuracy of report writing
 Organization of the report
 Analysis of team work (if the reports are made in group)
 Generation of new ideas

unit.
4. What points would you keep in mind while assessing a seminar?
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
5.6 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, the techniques of evaluation are discussed. You have read about
the various techniques of evaluation such as concept tests, self-reporting
techniques, observation technique, portfolios, peer assessment, assignments, and
project work. Though some of the generally used techniques such as assignments,
and concept tests are implemented by teachers, in this Unit you have learnt
about the details of how these techniques can be used for proper assessment.
While going through self- reporting techniques, you have found that they are
of different types such as interview, questionnaire, and reflective journal. By now,
you might have developed the ability to assess student learntly by using various 19
Techniques and Tools of self-reporting techniques. You might have understood how evaluation of your
students is possible through observation, socio-metric technique, portfolios,
project work, debate and club activities. Also, you might have understood how
you can interpret group assessment techniques. In the last section, if was also
discussed how seminar and report can be used as an assessment tool.
5.7 REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Angelo, Thomas A., & Cross, K. Patricia. (1993). Classroom Assessment
Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/assesslearning/CATs.html
on 15/02/2017.
Badders, William. (2000). Methods of Assessment. Retrieved from https://
www.eduplace.com/science/profdev/articles/badders.html.
Barbour, A.C. (2010). Learning at Home Prek-3: Homework Activities that
Engage Children and Families. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
British Colombia Institute of Technology (2010). Classroom Assessment
Techniques. Retrieved from http://www.northernc.on.ca/leid/docs/ja_assesstech.pdf
Dogra, Bharti. ( 2010). Constructivist Classroom Activities for Biology Learning.
‘Journal of Indian Education’ Volume XXXVI, 2, pp. 111-120.
Eberly Centre for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. (2015).
Using Classroom Assessment Techniques. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/
teaching/assessment/assesslearning/CATs.html 02/03/2017.
Field Tested Learning Assessment Guide (n.d.). Classroom Assessment
Techniques (CATs) - Overview. Retrieved from http://www.flaguide.org/cat/
cat.php on 22/02/2017.
Greenstein, Laura. (2012). Assessing 21st Century Skills. New Delhi: Sage
Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
5.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1. To assist in student learning, to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses,
to assess the effectiveness of a particular instructional strategy, to assess
and improve the effectiveness of curricular programmes, to assess and
improve teaching effectiveness and to communicate with and involve parents
and guardians in their childrens learning.
2. Self reporting techniques such as interview, focus group discussion,
questionnaire and reflective journal provide means for extracting the hidden
treasure of one’s own behaviours and patterns of personality.
3. Autonomy in learning, learner confidence, ability to self-evaluate and reflect,
improving information and understanding, improving one’s own work,
avoiding mistakes in future and able to assess a large amount of student
work.
4. Understanding of concept, critical thinking and reasoning, ability to build
new knowledge, self-confidence, self-discipline and presentation style.
20
Criteria of a Good Tool
UNIT 6 CRITERIA OF A GOOD TOOL
Structure
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Objectives
6.3 Evaluation Tools : Types and Differences
6.3.1 Self-made and Standardized Tools
6.3.2 Difference between Self-Made and Standardized Tools
6.4 Essential Criteria of an Effective Tool of Evaluation

6.4.1 Reliability
6.4.2 Validity
6.4.3 Usability
6.4.4 Objectivity
6.4.5 Norm
6.5 Let Us Sum Up

6.1 INTRODUCTION
In Unit-5, you have studied about the techniques of evaluation such as
observation, interview, rating scale, socio-metric techniques, seminar, group
discussion, etc. From that Unit, you might have understood the techniques of
using various assessment tools for assessment and evaluation. In this Unit, we
will discuss the types of tools and the essential criteria of a good tool. During
the course of discussion you will understand that there are different criteria to
be taken into consideration while evaluating a tool or determining the worth
of a tool to be used. In this regard, broadly we will discuss the criteria of
an effective tool such as reliability, validity, usability, objectivity and norm of
a tool and how to determine the index of reliability and validity for making
it an effective tool. Again, the effective tools are used for satisfying the purpose
of its evaluation. According to this purpose, we can classify the tools into two
broad categories, that are self-made tool and standardized tool. This Unit will
also make you understand the concept of self-made and standardized tools and
also to differentiate between them.
6.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, you should be able to:
 define self-made and standardized tools,
 differentiate self-made and standardized tool,
 discuss the different criteria of an effective tool,
 explain the relationship between validity and reliability,
 describe the procedure to find out reliability and validity of a tool,
 calculate the index of reliability and validity of a tool, and
 explain the criteria of an effective tool. 21
Assessment and Evaluation 6.3 EVALUATION TOOLS : TYPES AND
DIFFERENCES
We use a variety of tools for the purpose of assessment of performances of
the students in the school. We also use different types of tools for collecting
data to conduct various projects and research studies. It is also equally used
for various administrative purposes, for example, recruitment for various jobs.
That is why we say that for assessing something, we need to use a tool. Now
the question is as to which type of tool can be used for what purpose. On
the basis of the purpose, tools are classified into two broad types namely self-
made and standardized tools. In this Section, you will learn about both types
of tools and also you will be able to differentiate them.
6.3.1 Self-made and Standardized Tools

As discussed, we usually use two types of tools, self-made and standardized,
in assessment and evaluation. Let us understand the concept of both the tools.
Self-made tool : Self-made tool is also popularly known as teacher-made tool.
This type of tool is prepared for assessing performance of the students in various
subjects. These types of tools are usually prepared by those class teachers who
are engaged in teaching the subject to the particular class. Self-made tools are
meant to limited purpose for the particular groups of students to whom the
teacher teaches. You as a teacher, should be engaged in preparing and
administering such type of tools in your class. You may be engaged in preparing
a unit, quarterly or half-yearly test for assessing the performance of your students.
This is an example of teacher-made tool.
Standardized tool : When we prepare a tool by following a set procedure
of test construction and develop norms for its use, then it is called standardized
tool. This is generally prepared keeping in view the large group. All the criteria
for preparing an effective tool are followed in a standardized tool. A self-made
tool can also be a standardized tool, provided the procedures and steps are
followed in developing the same. Generally, standardized tools are developed
by specialists or experts in the field. The norms, such as age, gender, percentile,
habitation, etc. are also developed in a standardized tool. A test prepared for
classes 10 or 12 Board Examination by Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) or by any State Board can be an example of standardized test. Now
you might have understood that the standardized tool is used on a large
population, say entire country, entire State or a University. The entrance
examination conducted by the CBSE for admitting students in medical or
engineering programmes is also an example of a standardized test.
6.3.2 Difference between Self-made and Standardized Tool

We hope that you have understood the concept of self-made and standardized
tool. Now we shall clarify the difference between the self-made and standardized
tool. Read the points given in Table 6.1.
22
Table 6.1: Difference between self-made and standardized tool
Self or Teacher-made Tool StandardizedTool
The purpose of teacher-made tool is to The purpose of standardized tool is to admit

know the progress of the students in a the students in various courses and also to
particular subject, especially at the school provide them placement or employment.
stage.
Teacher-made tool is made by the teacher Standardized tools are prepared by the test
for the students to whom he/she teaches. specialists and the experts in the field.
Teacher-made tool is prepared for the small Standardized tools are prepared for the large
group students in a school or class. group population.
The use of teacher-made tool is verylimited. The use of standardized tool is very vast.
The rigorous procedures of tool The complete procedure of test

construction are not followed in teacher- standardization is followed in standardized
made tool. test.
Norms are not developed for developing Developing norms are compulsory in
teacher-made tool. standardized tool.
No statistical techniques are used to Rigorous statistical methods are used to

determine the reliability and validity of the determine the reliability and validity of the
teacher-made tool. test.
Item analysis and item discrimination are Item-wise analysis is made to know the item
not calculated in teacher-made tool. difficulty and discrimination before
including the item in the final test.
The difficulty level of the item in teacher- The difficulty value of the item in
made tool depends upon the standard of standardized tools is generally average in
teaching of the teacher to the group. It may standard.
be easy, average or difficult.
Subjectivity in preparing and applying the Standardized tools are always objective in
teacher-made tool is always there. nature.
Teacher-made tool supports the principles Standardized tools support the principles
and spirit of continuous comprehensive and spirit of summative evaluation.
evaluation, specifically the formative
assessment.
The Unit tool, quarterly and half-yearly The tests prepared for the Board Exami-
examinations conducted in the schools are nation may be central or state level and the
examples of teacher-made tool. test prepared for admission, placement and
recruitment for various vocations/jobs are
also the examples of standardized tool.
The following learning points emerge to summarize the above table :

 Self-made tool is used for limited purpose that is in particular class whereas
standardized tool is used for the large group of students that may even
cover students of a state or country.
 Self-made tool is prepared by the class teacher whereas standardized tool
is prepared by test specialists.
 All steps of tool construction including development of norms is followed
in standardized tool whereas teacher-made tool follows only few steps upto
getting the content validity.
23
Techniques and Tools of  The difficulty level of items in teacher-made tool depends upon the
standard of teaching by the teacher, that is it may be easy or difficult or
average whereas the difficulty level of a standardized tool is always average
in standard.
Activity 1
Analyse the Table 6.1 and summarize it on the following aspects :
Purpose of both type of tools :
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
Process followed to prepare the tools :
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
Main beneficiaries of the tools and the jurisdiction of its use :
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
Examples of the tools :
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................

Note : a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with the ones given at the end of the
unit.
1. Define self or teacher-made tool in your own words.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
2. Define standardized tool in your own words.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
24
6.4 ESSENTIAL CRITERIAOFAN EFFECTIVE
TOOLOF EVALUATION
Developing an effective tool is a challenging task. You have to follow scientific
and systematic procedure to develop or standardize a tool. To get accurate
results, you have to prepare or select a proper tool. Before selecting a tool
for certain purpose, you have to look into the criteria or qualities of the tool.
The essential qualities or criteria of an effective tool may be as follows:
 Reliability
 Validity
 Usability
 Objectivity
 Norm
Let us now discuss each one of these criteria in detail.
6.4.1 Reliability
Reliability is the important criteria of a good test/tool. Reliability refers to
consistency. A test which shows a consistent result in its frequent uses in different
situations and places is called reliability of the test. The other synonyms that
can be used for getting reliability of the test are: dependability, stability,
consistency, predictability, accuracy, etc. It implies that the reliable test always
provides a stable, dependable, accurate and consistent result in its subsequent
uses. Before discussing the methods or techniques of determining reliability, it
is worthwhile to observe here some points cited by Gronlund (1981) :
i. Reliability refers to the results obtained with an evaluation instrument

and not to the instrument itself. An evaluation tool may have a large
number of different reliabilities depending on the groups of subjects
and situations of use.
ii. Test scores are not reliable in general. An estimate of reliability always
relates to a particular type of consistency – say consistency of scores
over a period of time (stability) or consistency of scores over different
samples of questions (equivalence), etc.
iii. Reliability is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for validity. A
valid test is always reliable, but a reliable test may or may not be
valid.
iv. Reliability is primarily statistical in nature in the sense that the scores
obtained on two successive occasions are correlated with each other.
v. The coefficient of correlation is known as self-correlation and its value
is called the ‘reliability coefficient’.
(Source : ES – 333; Educational Evaluation, IGNOU, 2010)
Methods or techniques of reliability : As per Singh (2002), there are three

common methods of estimating the reliability coefficient of test scores. These
methods are :
(i) Test-retest reliability.
(ii) Parallel-forms reliability.
25
(iii) Internal consistency reliability.
Techniques and Tools of Let us discuss each method of reliability in detail.
(i) Test-retest reliability : Test-retest reliability means the same test is
administered twice on the same group of sample within a given time interval
and correlation is calculated between the two sets of scores (first and
second administration). If the coefficient of correlation is positive and high,
it is considered that the test is reliable. Let us discuss the procedures
of using test-retest reliability.
Table 6.2 : Precedures of using test-retest reliability
Conditions Use
Test Single form
Administer Twice
Group Single
Time interval Ideally 15 days to 6 Months
Determining reliability By employing correlation statistics
Decision Reliable if correlation coefficient is

positive and high. (r = +0.5).
Threat of error Error of ‘carry over effect’, ‘memory

effect’, ‘practice effect’, etc.
Suggestion Highly used method as it is easy to determine

reliability of the test, but because of the error
factor, test–retest method should be the last
option for the user.
After analysis of Table 6.2, we can say that test-retest method is one of the
easiest method to determine reliability of the test. In this method, the same test
is administered twice within a gap of time limit to minimum 15 days to maximum
six months. After getting the scores of test and re-test results, any method of
correlation either Spearman’s Rank Difference or Pearson’s Product Moment
Correlation method are used to get the coefficient of correlation (please read
Unit-16, Block-4, BES-127). As this has already mentioned in the Table, if
the coefficient of correlation (r) is = +0.5, we can say that the test is reliable.
The following methods can be employed to calculate correlation of the testing
and re-testing scores.
Spearman’s Rank Difference Method (ρ)
6 d2
ρ = 1  n(n2 - 1)
ρ = Is called as ‘rho’, means correlation in test-retest method.

d = Deviations (R1 – R2) [Rank of the candidates in first test score (R1) and
Rank of the candidates in second test score (R2)]
n = Is total number of candidates
26
Karl Pearson’s Product Moment Method (r)
r =
r = Correlation coefficient
x = Deviations taken from mean of the distribution (X-M) [X – Individual
Score and M – Mean of the first distribution]
y = Deviations taken from mean of the distribution (Y-M) [Y – Individual Score
and M – Mean of the second distribution]
N = Total number of the candidates
σx = Standard deviation of first distribution
σy = Standard deviation of second distribution
Limitations of using the method : The following are the limitations of the
test-retest method :
 As the same test is administered twice on the same group, there will be
the threat of carry over effect, it means, during the second administration,
the candidates may remember many items from the first administration.
 The scoring of second administration is usually high than the first one.
 Maintaining a gap of time between test and re-test is also again one of
the important aspects to determining exact value of reliability. If time gap
is very less, then carry over effect will be high and on the other side,
if time gap is very high, maturity effects of the candidates may hamper
the test results.
 This method is not free from errors. Memory, carry over, practice and
maturity effects are high in this technique.
Activity 2
Prepare a small test and find out reliability of the test by using test-
retest method of reliability.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
(ii) Parallel-form Reliability : Because of the error factors in test-retest

method, parallel-form method is one of the alternate methods of the test-
retest method and it can minimize many of the errors occurred in the earlier
method. In the parallel form method, two parallel tests are prepared keeping
in consideration equivalence in all aspects such as similarities in content,
objectives, types and number of items, time allowed in both the tests, level
of difficulty, discrimination value, conditions of use, etc. The main effort
by doing these is to make two equivalent forms of test. 27
Techniques and Tools of Let us discuss the procedures and conditions of using parallel-form method for
determining reliability.
Table 6.3 : Precedures of using parallel-form method for reliability
Conditions Use
Test Two equivalent forms
Administer Twice (First test for first administration and second
test for second administration)
Group Single
Time interval This is advisable to maintain a gap of minimum 15
days to maximum six months for first and second
testing.
Determining reliability Use of correlation statistics by the Spearman or
Pearson formula of correlation.
Decision Reliable if correlation coefficient is positive and high.
(r = +0.5).
Threat of error Error of ‘carry over effect’, ‘memory effect’,
‘practice effect’, etc. are not totally minimized, but
in comparison to test-retest method, the occurrences
of error is comparatively less. Here there is no
question of splitting the items into two equal halves.
Suggestion As it is an advanced method of test-retest method,
this can be used in many situations, but the main
challenge here is to develop exactly two equivalent
forms of test.
In Table 6.3 we have stated the processes adopted in the parallel-form method
to determine the reliability of a test. In this method, two parallel tests are
developed which are equivalent in all respects, such as content, objectives, types
of items, time given, difficulty level of the item, etc. When two parallel tests
are used to get the reliability of the test, it is quite natural that the carry over,
memory, and practice effects are highly minimized. For example, when items
are different, there is very less chance to remember the earlier questions. Just
like the test-retest method, the first form of the test is administered on the group
and after a gap of some time period say, from a minimum of 15 days to a
maximum of 6 Months, the second form of the test may be used. Spearman’s
or Karl Pearson’s method can be used to get the coefficient of correlation of
the two administrations. If correlation coefficient is, r > +0.5, then the test is
said to be reliable.
Limitation of parallel form method : Parallel form method is also not
completely free from errors. There are possibilities of making errors in this
method also:
 Practice and carry over effect is not totally minimized, as both the tests
are equivalent in nature in many respects except only the items are
different and a time interval of 15 days to 6 months is given for testing
28 the second form of the test. During this period, there is a chance that
the students may practice the similar content and items and hence chances
for getting better scores in second testing are generally more.
 Preparing two parallel forms of the tests is also a complex task.
 This method is comparatively time taking to get the reliability.
(iii) Internal consistency reliability : Internal consistency reliability indicates
the homogeneity of the test. If all the items of the test measure the same
function or trait, the test is said to be a homogeneous one and its internal
consistency reliability would be pretty high. The most common methods
of estimating internal consistency reliability are the (a) Split-half method
and (b) Rational equivalence method. Let us discuss split-half method first.
(a) Split-half method : This method is also called as ‘odd-even method’.
Let us discuss the procedures and conditions of using split-half method
for determining reliability.
Table 6.4 : Precedures of using split-half reliability method
Conditions Use
Test Single form
Administer Once
Group Single
Time interval Not necessary as the test will administer only once.
Determining reliability By employing correlation statistics as well as split-
half reliability formula.
Decision Reliable if reliability index is positive and
high. (r = +0.5).
Threat of error Error of ‘carry over effect’, ‘memory effect’,
‘practice effect’, etc. are minimized, but still
splitting the full test into two halves is also difficult
because splitting the full test into two-halves can
be made in many different ways such as odd and
even, first fifty percent and last fifty percent, and
so on.
Suggestion Is one of the highly used method as most errors
are minimized.
Table 6.4 reveals the procedures of using split-half reliability method. Most of
the errors that occur in test-retest method are minimized in split-half method
as the test is not conducted twice on the same group. In this method, the test
is to be administered only once to a single group and after getting the scores
of the students, it has to be split into two equal halves like in odd and even
items, or any other technique to divide it into two halves. The scores of the
candidates for odd items and for even items will be separated and suitable
statistical techniques are used to get the reliability of the scores of two halves.
The Spearman-Brown Prophecy formula is generally used for calculating
reliability of the full test. The formula is as follows:
29
Assessment and Evaluation rtt =
rtt = Reliability of the whole test

r1/2 = Correlation of the two halves of the test
Just like, test-retest method, correlation of the two halves of the test (r1/2)
will be calculated by using the method of Spearman or Pearson’s correlation.
Splitting of the item can be done as shown in Table 6.4.
Table 6.5: Worksheet for the Odd-Even Reliability
Examinee Total Number of correct Number of
No. of scores on odd- correct score
correct numberred items on even-numbered
scores items
1 50 29 21
2 46 20 26
3 55 28 27
4 39 19 20
5 55 25 30
6 49 27 22
7 60 32 28
8 42 20 22
9 45 24 21
10 53 28 25
Table 6.5 represents the total number of correct scores of the examinees and
also the number of correct scores on odd numbered items and on even numbered
items. For example, the examinee at serial number 1 scored a total of 50 out
of which 29 scored from the odd items and 21 from the even items. Accordingly,
all examinee’s scores are grouped for odd and even items and made into two
groups for getting the reliability of the whole test.
Limitations of this method : The important error in this method is to split
the full test into two equal halves. This can be done in many ways like odd-
even, first 50 percent items and next 50 percent items, etc. The correlation
of two-haves of the test and the reliability of the full test will also be different
based on different ways of splitting the test items. Besides this type of errors,
the other type of errors such as ‘carry over error’, ‘maturity error’, ‘memory
and practice effect’ etc. are mostly minimized in this method.
Activity 3
With the example presented in Table 6.5, calculate reliability coefficient
of whole test by using Spearman-Brown Prophecy formula.
.........................................................................................................
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30 .........................................................................................................
(b) Rational equivalence method : This is purely a statistical process of
determining reliability of a test. The formula for calculating reliability in
rational equivalence method is developed by Kuder and Richardson. They
developed two formulae popularly known as Kuder and Richardson (KR)
formula number 20 and 21 (KR 20 and KR 21). Lee J. Cronbach has
called it Coefficient of Internal Consistency. This method of reliability
is an improvement of all the earlier methods as it minimises errors in
calculating reliability. You should also understand that rational equivalence
method is the improvement of split-half method. The assumption in Kuder
and Richardson formula is that all items have the same or equal difficulty
value, but not necessarily the same persons solve each item correctly. The
difficulty value of an item depends on knowing aspect of a person. If the
person knows the item, it is easy for him/her and if he/she does not know
the item, it is difficult for him/her. The assumption is that the test is
homogeneous in nature.
Table 6.6: Precedures of using rational equivalence method
Conditions Use
Test One
Administer Once
Group Single
Time interval No need
Determining reliability By employing KR-20 and KR-21 formullae.
Decision Reliable if reliability index is positive and
high. (r > +0.5).
Threat of error Errors are mostly minimized
Suggestion Can be used effectively in research
Table 6.6 reveals the conditions of using rational equivalence method in

determining reliability of a test. This method statistically eliminates most of the
errors of determining reliability of a test. It requires certain statistical applications
to determine the reliability, that’s why the skill of applying statistics is required
to get the reliability. As indicated, all most all errors are minimized in this method
besides the human and calculation errors. This is highly used in tool construction
for research. The formula of KR-20 and KR-21 are as follows :
KR-20 formula is the more accurate and is given as follows :
2
r =( )( 2
) —— KR-20
r = Reliability Index
σ 2 = Variance of the total test (square of the standard deviation)
n = Number of items in the test
p = Proportion of right responses
q = (1-p) proportion of wrong responses 31
Techniques and Tools of KR-21 formula is given as follows :
r = —— KR-21
r = Reliability Index
σ 2 = Variance of the total test (square of the standard deviation)
n = Number of items in the test
M = Mean of the test scores
Limitations of rational equivalence Method : The following are the main
limitations of this method :
 The item variation of item difficulty is not considered in calculating reliability
index.
 The reliability coefficient is approximate and lower than the accurate
reliability coefficient.
 It can not be used for power test or heterogeneous test.
 The different KR formula yields different reliability coefficient.
Factors influencing Reliability Coefficient : Factors influencing reliability of
a test can be classified as extrinsic factors and intrinsic factors.
Extrinsic factors : The important extrinsic factors (i.e. the factors which remain
outside the test itself) influencing the reliability are :
i. Group variability : When the group of pupils being tested is homogeneous
in ability, the reliability of the test scores is likely to be lowered and vice-
versa. It is therefore, the method of randomization is used to get the groups
having a representative of all abilities.
ii. Guessing and chance errors : Guessing in test results in to increased
error variances and thus reduces reliability. For example, in two-alternative
response options there is a 50% chance of answering the items correctly
in terms of guessing. It is therefore difficult to determine the true scores
of the examinees.
iii. Environmental conditions : As far as practicable, testing environment
should be uniform like the proper facilities of light, air, seating arrangement,
audibility of the instructions, time of testing, qualities of materials used for
the test, etc.
iv. Momentary fluctuations : Momentary fluctuations may raise or lower
the reliability of the test scores. A broken pencil, momentary distraction
by the sudden sound of a train running outside, anxiety regarding non-
completion of homework, mistake in giving the answer and knowing no
way to change it are the factors which may affect the reliability of the
test scores.
Intrinsic factors : The principal intrinsic factors (i.e. those factors which lie
within the test itself) which affect the reliability are :
i. Length of the test : Reliability has a definite relation with the length of
32
the test. The more the number of items the test contains, the greater will
be its reliability and vice-versa. Therefore adequate number of items needs
to be included in the test.
ii. Homogeneity of the items : Homogeneity of items has two aspects :
item reliability and the homogeneity of traits measured from one item to
another. If the items measure different functions and the inter-correlation
of items is ‘zero’ or near to it, then the reliability is ‘zero’ or very low
or vice-versa.
iii. Difficulty value of the items : Broadly, items having indices of difficulty
at 0.5 or close to it yield higher reliability than items of extreme indices
of difficulty. It emphasizes that the items should be of the average difficulty
values. Too much difficulty and too much easy items are usually avoided
in the test.
iv. Discriminative value : When items can discriminate well between superior
and inferior, the item total correlation is high, then the reliability is also
likely to be high and vice-versa. It implies that the item has the quality
to discriminate the lower and the higher group.
v. Scorer reliability : Scorer reliability, otherwise known as reader reliability,
also affects the reliability of a test. Scorer reliability speaks of how closely
two or more scores agree in scoring the same set of responses. The
reliability is likely to be lowered if they do not agree.
(Source : Factors Influencing Reliability, ES-333, IGNOU, 2010)

b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the
unit.
3. Define reliability in your own words.
.........................................................................................................
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.........................................................................................................
4. Which is the best method for determining reliability and why?
.........................................................................................................
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5. List any five factors which decrease the reliability of a test.
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6.4.2 Validity
In the preceding sub-section you have studied about the reliability. Let us now
discuss about validity. Validity tells us about the accuracy and truthfulness of
a test. The accuracy of a test can be said if and when the test measures the 33
Techniques and Tools of the purpose it was constructed. Cronbach (1970) defines validity as ‘validity
is the extent to which a test measures what it purports to measure’. Further
Freeman (1965) defines validity as ‘an index of validity shows the degree to
which a test measures what it purports to measure when compared with accepted
criterion.’
From the above three definitions given we can say that validity talks not only
about consistency but also accuracy and truthfulness of the test results. This
can also be said that, validity is above reliability and it includes reliability also.
See Figure 6.1 given below :
Figure 6.1: Validity and Reliability
From the definitions of validity, let us try to understand the characteristics of

validity.
Characteristics of validity : The following are the main characteristics of
validity of a test :
i. Validity is an index of external correlation. The test scores are correlated
with external criterion scores such as the test scores will be correlated
with an earlier developed valid test prepared for measuring the same aspect.
ii. The criterion may be a set of operation, purpose or predictor for future
course of performance.
iii. It deals with the psychological construct of a variable which is indirectly
measured with the help of behaviours.
iv. No test in education and psychology is perfectly valid because measurement
is indirect.
v. Validity endorses the reliability of a test. If a test is valid, it must be reliable,
but a reliable test may or may not be valid.
vi. It refers to the truthfulness or purposiveness of test scores.
vii. It indicates the degree to which the test is capable to achieve the aims
for which it is developed.
34
viii. Validity is best considered in terms of matter of degrees, such as high,
moderate and low validity.
Types of validity
Commonly, five types of validity are used in preparing tools. These are :
(i) Face Validity
(ii) Content Validity
(iii) Criterion-related Validity
 Predictive validity
 Concurrent validity
(iv) Construct Validity
(v) Factorial Validity
Let us understand the concept of the above types of validity.
(i) Face validity : Face validity is the first step to know validity of a test.
This is also called validation by face. This method is not widely used because
it never analyses the entire test and its items to determine the validity of
the test. In the face validity, the appearance of the test, purpose of its
construction, objectives it covers, dimensions it measures, language used,
etc. are taken into consideration for determining the face validity of the
test. This is the lowest level of determining validity of the test. This method
can only be used in case of shortage of time for using other methods of
validity. Further, before using other methods of determining validity, a
judgment is taken, whether the test is validated by face or not. If the test
lacks face validity then usually other methods of validity are not determined.
(ii) Content validity : Content validity is the second level of validity of the
test. In this method, the format as well as the content of the test is examined
and decision is taken for its validity. Anastasi (1968) defines content validity
as, ‘it involves essentially the systematic examination of the test content
to determine whether it covers a representative sample of the behavior
domain to be measured.’ Content validity basically matches the test items
with the instructional objectives. Content validity is very important for
achievement test. To know the content validity of a test, usually the items
are examined as per the blue-print/table of specification on which the test
is prepared. Let us try to understand, what is a blue-print or table of
specification with the help of an example :
Example :
Test : Achievement Test of Social Science for Class-IX
Total Marks – 100
Total Item – 100 (Each item carries 1 mark)
Types of Items – Objective Type Item (multiple choice type with four options)
Weightage to Objective Areas – Knowledge (40%); Understanding (20%);
Application (20%); and Skill (20%)
35
Techniques and Tools of Weightage to Content Areas – History (25%); Political Science (25%);
Economics (25%); and Civics (25%).
Blue-print/table of specification : A blue-print is a three dimensional chart,
where weightage are given to Content, Objectives and Form of Questions in
terms of marks. Here the first dimension is ‘content’, second dimension is
‘objectives’ and the third dimension is ‘form of questions in terms of marks’.
Table 6.7: Blue-print of an Achievement Test
Content/Objectives Knowledge Understanding Application Skill Total
History 10×1 = 10 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 25
Political Science 10×1 = 10 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 25
Economics 10×1 = 10 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 25
Civics 10×1 = 10 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 5×1 = 5 25
Total 40 20 20 20 100
As presented in Table 6.7, the content validity of a test depends upon as to

how far the items are written as per the table of specification. The closer the
test items correspond to the specified sample, the greater the possibility of
satisfactory content validity. Therefore, it is desirable that the items in a test
are screened by a team of experts; they should check whether the placement
of various items in the cells of the table is appropriate and whether all the
cells of the table have an adequate number of items. For determining content
validity of the test, the experts require to examine the items with the textbook,
syllabi, etc.
(iii) Criterion-related validity : Unlike content validity, criterion-related
validity can be objectively measured and declared in terms of numerical
indices. The concept of criterion-related validity focuses on a set of
‘external’ criterion. The external criterion may be data of ‘concurrent’
information or of a future performance. The criterion related to concurrent
information is called as ‘Concurrent Validity’ and criterion related to future
performance is called as ‘Predictive Validity’.
 Predictive validity : Predictive validity refers to the predictive
capacity of a test. It indicates the effectiveness of the test in forecasting
or predicting future outcomes in a specific area. In short, predictive
validity determines how far the test is able to predict future result.
This can be better understood by an example. Suppose we have to
prepare a medical entrance examination test to admit students in
medical courses. The predictive validity of the test can be determined
only when those qualified students who took admission in medical
course performed well in the medical final examination. Predictive
validity is a time consuming method. To get predictive validity of a
test, you have to wait till the completion of the course. Sometimes,
prediction can also take much time to correlate it with further criterion
such as those students who performed well in the entrance examination,
whether they successfully completed the course or not, and further,
those students who successfully completed the course did get a job/
placement or not. So, to determine the predictive validity of a test,
36 there is a need to establish correlation of the scores between entrance
examination result and the course completion result. If the correlation
coefficient is positive and high, you can say that the test is valid.
This type of validity is sometimes referred to as ‘empirical validity’
or ‘statistical validity’ as our evaluation is primarily empirical and
statistical. You can test the validity empirically.
 Concurrent validity : Concurrent validity refers to the extent to which
the test scores correspond to already accepted measures of performance.
For example, suppose you have prepared a test of ‘intelligence’ and
you want to know the concurrent validity of the test, you have to
correlate the scores of the test administration with the scores of another
established standardized test. Let us understand it with the help of
another example. The Intelligence test, which you have prepared and
the intelligence test prepared by Stanford-Binet can be administered
among the same group of students and correlation coefficient of two
sets of scores can be determined. If the coefficient of correlation is
high, we can say that the test has concurrent validity.
(iv) Construct validity : Construct validity is also called ‘psychological or
trait validity’. Construct validity means that the test scores are examined
in terms of a construct. For example, the construct for achievement of
a student may be his/her intelligence, practice, aptitude, interest, attitude,
etc. Construct validity can be defined as the extent to which the test may
be said to measure a theoretical construct or trait or psychological variable.
In construct validity the variables related to the test which contributes to
that aspect are correlated and examined.
For example, this is a theoretical fact that intelligence and achievement
are positively correlated with each other. Suppose you have to prepare
an intelligence test and you want to know the construct validity of the
test. For that, you have to correlate the intelligence test scores of the
students with their achievement test scores. The assumption here is that
those students who have done well in intelligence test will naturally do
well in achievement test, because as per the theory, both are positively
correlated with each other. In case the correlation is negative, it can be
said that the intelligence test is lacking construct validity. This can also
be correlated with other theoretical and psychological construct of an
intelligence test with the assumptions as follows :
 Intelligence and achievement are positively correlated with each other.
 Intelligence and aptitude are positively correlated with each other.
Construct validity is to the extent test results are interpreted in terms of
known psychological concepts and principles. Certain common examples
of theoretical constructs of most psychological tests are intelligence,
scientific attitude, critical thinking, reading, comprehension, study skills and
mathematical aptitude, etc.
(v) Factorial validity : Factorial validity determines the correlation of the
different factors/components with the whole test. Factorial validity is
determined by a statistical technique known as factor analysis. It uses
methods of expansion of inter-correlations to identify factors (which may
be verbalized as abilities) constituting the test. The correlation of the test 37
Techniques and Tools of with each factor is calculated to determine the weight contributed by each
such factor to the total performance of the test. This validity tells us about
the factor loading. The factors responsible for achievement of students
are called factor loading. This relationship of the different factors with the
whole test is called the factorial validity. Factorial validity is the clearest
description of what a test measures and by all means should be given
preference over other types of validity.
Factors affecting validity : A large number of factors influence the validity
of the test. Gronlund (1981) has suggested the following factors :
i. Factors in the test itself :
The following factors that affect validity of a test are included in the test
itself. These are also called as intrinsic factors.
 Unclear direction : If directions regarding how to respond to the
items, whether it is permissible to guess and how to record the answers,
are not clear to the pupil, then the validity will tend to reduce. Hence,
clear direction should be given in the test.
 Reading difficult vocabulary and sentence structures : The
complicated vocabulary and sentence structure meant for the student
taking the test may fail in measuring the aspects of pupil performances;
thus it results in lowering the validity.
 Inappropriate level of difficulty of the test items : When the test
items have an inappropriate level of difficulty, it will affect the validity
of the tool. For example, in criterion referenced test, failure to match
the difficulty specified by the learning outcome will lower the validity.
 Poorly constructed test items : The test items which provide
unintentional clues to the answer will tend to measure the pupils’
alertness in detecting clues as well as the aspects of pupil performance
which ultimately affect the validity.
 Ambiguity : Ambiguity in statements in the test items leads to
misinterpretation, multi-interpretations and confusion. Sometimes, it
may confuse the good students more than the poor ones resulting in
the discrimination of items in a negative direction. As a consequence,
the validity of the test is lowered.
 Test items inappropriate for the outcomes being measured :
Many a times we try to measure certain complex types of achievement,
understanding, thinking, skills, etc. with test forms that are appropriate
only for measuring factual knowledge. This affects the results and leads
to a distortion of the validity.
 Test too short : A test usually represents a sample of many questions.
If the test is too short to become a representative one, then validity
will be affected accordingly.
 Improper arrangement of items : Items in the test are usually

38 arranged in terms of difficulty with the easiest items first. If the difficult
items are placed early in the test, it may make the students spend
too much of their time on these and fail to reach other items which
they could answer easily. Also, such an improper arrangement may
influence the validity by having a negative effect on pupil motivation.
 Identifiable pattern of answer : When the students identify

systematic pattern of correct answer (e.g. T, T, F, F, T, T, F, F or
A,B,C,D,A,B,C,D, etc.) they can cleverly guess the answers and this
will affect the validity. It is therefore, in objective items, the order
of answers should not follow any pattern.
ii. Functioning content and teaching procedure : In achievement testing,

the functioning content of test items can not be determined only by
examining the form and content of the test. The teacher has to teach fully
how to solve a particular problem before including it in the test. Tests
of complex learning outcomes seem to be valid if the test items function
as intended. If the students have previous experience of the solution of
the problem included in the test, then such tests are no more a valid
measurement for measuring the more complex mental processes and thus
affect the validity.
iii. Factors in test administration and scoring : The test administration

and scoring procedure may also affect the validity of the interpretations
from the results. For instance, in teacher-made tests factors like insufficient
time to complete the test, unfair help to individual students, cheating during
the examination, and the unreliable scoring of essay answers might lead
to lower the validity. Similarly, in standardized tests the lack of standard
directions and time limits, unauthorized help to students and errors in
scoring, would tend to lower the validity. Whether it is a teacher-made
test or standardized-test, adverse physical and psychological conditions
during testing time may affect the validity.
iv. Factors in students’ response : There are certain personal factors which
influence the students’ response to the test situation and invalidate the test
interpretation. Students’ emotional disturbance, lack of motivation, test
anxiety, etc. may affect the validity.
v. Nature of the group and the criterion : Factors such as age, sex,
ability level, educational and cultural background of the students influence
the test measures. Therefore, the nature of the validation group should
find a mention in the test manual. The nature of the criterion used is another
important consideration while evaluating validity coefficient. For example,
scores on a scientific aptitude test are likely to provide a more accurate
prediction of achievement in an ‘environmental studies’ course. Other things
being equal, the greater the similarity between the performance measured
by the test and the performance presented in the criterion, the larger the
validity coefficient.
(Source : Factors affecting Validity, ES-333, IGNOU, 2010)
39
Assessment and Evaluation Check Your Progress 3
unit.
6. Define validity in your own words.
.........................................................................................................
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7. Explain predictive validity with an example.
.........................................................................................................
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8. State any four important factors that influence validity of a test.
.........................................................................................................
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6.4.3 Usability
Usability refers how successfully you, as a teacher, use the test in a classroom
situation. It has been observed that, many highly valid tests lack the quality
of usability. The user fails to understand or feels it difficult to use the test.
Therefore, a good test should have the quality of usability. While selecting an
evaluation tool, you should look for certain practical considerations like easy
for administration and scoring, easy for interpretation, availability of comparable
forms and cost of testing. All these considerations induce a teacher to use tools
of evaluation and such practical considerations are referred to as the ‘usability’
of a tool of evaluation. In other words, usability means the degree to which
the tool of evaluation can be successfully used by the teacher and school
administrators. So usability of a test includes comprehensibility, easy for
administration and scoring, easy for interpretation, appearance of the test,
economy and availability of the test for use.
6.4.4 Objectivity
Objectivity is another important feature for a good test. Objectivity of a test
refers to two aspects of the test, viz;
 Item-objectivity, and
 Scoring-objectivity.
Item-objectivity means the item is having only one right answer. Many a times,
you might have observed that a single item has two or more related answers.
That affects the validity of the test. Apart from these, ambiguous questions, lack
of proper direction, double-barreled questions, questions with double negatives,
essay type questions, etc. do not have objectivity. So much care has to be
40
exercised while framing the questions.
Scoring-objectivity refers the test paper would fetch the same score. Scoring
objectivity can be ensured by carefully maintaining the item-objectivity. In
objective-type items, it is easy to ensure scoring-objectivity whereas in subjective
item, certain precautions needs to be taken to ensure scoring-objectivity such
as carefully phrasing the essay items, making proper directions of scoring, making
the items short-answer type instead of essay type item, etc.
6.4.5 Norm
Generally norm is considered as a standard, but technically, there is difference
between the concepts of norm and standard. Norm can be defined as the average
or standard score on a particular test made by a specified population.’ Thorndike
and Hegen (1977) defines norm as ‘average performance on a particular test
made by a standardized sample.’ Determining norm is one of the important criteria
of a good test. Most standardized tests determine norm. Norm can be
characterized as follows :
 It acts as a basis for interpreting test scores and minimize interpretive error
of the test.
 It helps to transform the raw scores into standard scores or derived scores
and put meaning to it.
 Norm suggests a level and therefore the individual departure from the level
can be evaluated in quantitative term.
 Norms are necessary for the purpose of promotion, gradation, selection
and classification of examinees.
 It refers to the average performance on a particular test made by
standardized sample or specified population.
The procedure of deterring the norm is a challenging task. Without determining
the norm of a test we can not say that the test is standardized. It is therefore,
in a standardized test, usually the age, level, habitation, etc. are mentioned on
which the test can be used and it also equally reflects in the interpretation of
the test scores. For interpretation of scores of educational and psychological
tests, different norms like age, grade, percentile, standard score, etc. are broadly
employed.

unit.
9. Explain the concept of item-objectivity.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
10. What are the different aspects of determining usability of a test?
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......................................................................................................... 41
Assessment and Evaluation 6.5 LET US SUM UP
In this Unit, we presented the essential criteria of a good tool. In this context,
we discussed first the concept of a teacher-made test or self-made test and
standardized test. We also differentiated a self-made test and standardized test
and also the purpose and context of its use. For clarifying criteria of a good
tool, we discussed reliability, validity, usability, objectivity and norm. You were
acquainted with the methods of determining reliability and validity of a test and
you might have understood how to calculate the reliability and validity of a test.
We have also discussed the other criteria of a tool such as objectivity, usability
and norm. In this Unit, the concept of usability, objectivity and norm have been
presented with examples.

Anastasi, Anne (1976). Psychological Testing, 4th ed., New York : Macmillan
Publishing Co. Inc.
Cronback, L.J. (1970). Essentials of Psychological Testing, 3rd ed., New York :
Harper and Row.
Ebel, Robert, L. (1996). Measuring Educational Achievement. New Delhi:
Prentice-Hall of India.
Ebel, Robert, L. and Fristic, David, A. (1991). Essentials of Educational
Achievement. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India.
Gronlund, N.E. (1981). Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching. 4th ed. New
York : Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.
Freeman, F.S. (1965). Theory and Practice of Psychological Testing (3rd ed.).
Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
IGNOU (2010). Criteria of a Good Tool (Unit 6; Block 2), Educational
Evaluation (ES-333, B.Ed.), New Delhi: IGNOU.
Kerlinger, F.N. (1973). Foundations of Behavioral Research, 1st ed., New York :
Holt, Rinchart and Winston Inc.
Nayak, B.K. and Rath, R.K. (2010). Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics
and Guidance Services in Education, New Delhi: Axis Publications.
Nually, J.C. (1972). Educational Measurement and Evaluation. 2nd ed., New
York : McGraw Hill Book Company.
Sharma, R.A. (2005). Mental Measurement and Evaluation. 2nd ed., Meerut :
R. Lal Book Depot.
Singh, A.K. (2002). Tests, Measurements and Research Methods in Behavioural
Sciences. 3rd ed., Patna : Bharti Bhawan.
Thorndike R. L. and E.P. Hagen (1977). Measurement and Evaluation in
Psychology and Education. 4th ed, New York : John Wiley and Sons.
42
1. Test prepared by the class-teacher for formative assessment of the students
to whom he/she teaches which is not standardize is called as self-made
or teacher-made test.
2. Standardized tool is prepared for the large group. The complete procedures
for test construction/standardization are followed to standardize a test. The
reliability, validity, norm, etc. are usually determined to standardize a tool.
3. Reliability refers to consistency. A test which shows a consistent result in
its frequent uses in different situations and places is called reliability of the
test.
4. Rational equivalence method is the best method for editermining reliability
of a test as statistifically most of the errors are minimised in this method.
5. (a) In case number of items in the test is less; (b) If items are not
homogeneous; (c) If memory and carry-over effect works; (d) Error in
scoring the test, and (e) In case items fail to discriminate the higher and
lower group students.
6. Validity means accuracy and truthfulness of the test and which satisfies the
very purpose of the test.
7. Predictive validity indicates the effectiveness of the test in forecasting or
predicting future outcomes in a specific area.
8. Self exercise.
9. Item-objectivity means the item is having only one right answer and it does
not carry ambiguous questions, lack of proper direction, double-barreled
questions, questions with double negatives, broad essay type questions, etc.
10. Comprehensibility, easy for administration, easy for scoring, easy for
interpretation, appearance of the test, economy and availability of the test.
43
UNIT 7 TOOLS FOR ASSESSMENT
AND EVALUATION
Structure
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Objectives
7.3 Tests
7.3.1 Paper Pencil Test
7.3.2 Oral Test
7.3.3 Aptitude Test
7.3.4 Achievement Test
7.3.5 Diagnostic–Remedial Test
7.3.6 Intelligence Test
7.4 Tools
7.4.1 Rating Scales
7.4.2 Questionnaire
7.4.3 Inventories
7.4.4 Checklist
7.4.5 Interview Schedule
7.4.6 Observation Schedule
7.4.7 Anecdotal Records
7.4.8 Learners Portfolios and Rubrics
7.5 Let Us Sum Up

7.1 INTRODUCTION
In Unit-6, you have studied about the techniques of evaluation and criteria of
a good tool. In Unit-5 of this Block, you have studied various techniques, such
as self-report, assignment, projects, socio-metric techniques, peer assessment,
debates, school and club activities, cooperative and collaborative learning and
assessment, and seminars use for assessing students performance in scholastic
and co-scholastic areas. Units 5 and 6 of this Block will help you to understand
the discussion in this Unit.
In this Unit, we will come to know about some prevailing tests being used
in our schools to comprehend, evaluate and accomplish various aspects of
teaching and learning namely achievement, oral, intelligence, and aptitude of the
students.
These aspects not only help you to evaluate the learners and diagnose their
problems but also assess your own teaching too, so that it can be improved.
The most common tools that are used in the schools such as rating scale,
questionnaire, inventories, checklists, interview and observation schedules,
(Note : Some sections of this Unit have been partially reproduced from Course:
ES-333 ‘Educational Evaluation’, B.Ed. Programme, IGNOU, 2010)
44
Tools for Assessment
anecdotal reports, portfolio and rubrics are discussed in the Unit. This will help and Evaluation
you to do an effective and enjoyable teaching and learning.
7.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, you should be able to:
 discuss the concept of tests and tools,
 differentiate between paper – pencil and oral tests,
 explain the concept of aptitude tests, their types, uses and limitations,
 discuss and administer the aptitude, achievement and diagnostic tests,
 explain the concept of intelligence test, its types, uses and limitations,
 explain a rating scale, its types, uses and limitations,
 explain the process of developing and use of questionnaire, inventory,
checklist, interview and observation schedule,
 discuss the use of anecdotal records, and
 discuss the use of portfolios and rubrics.
7.3 TESTS
Tests may be of different forms, such as psychological test used to measure
mental and behavioural traits, achievement test to assess performances of
students, etc. They can be used to assess both the scholastic and co-scholastic
abilities of the students. Let us now understand the concept of the test. The
tests are those instruments by which you, as a teacher, collect information as
data through verbal and non-verbal responses of the students. A concise
definition may be : a test is an instrument or systematic procedure for measuring
a sample of behaviour (Gronlund, 1990). Further, a psychological test is defined
as a standardized, repeatable procedures used to elicit and measure samples
of human behaviour’ (Kazdin, 2000). From the above two definitions, you can
summarize the meaning of a test and the sample behaviour it measures as follows :
 Human abilities, including intelligence, aptitudes, skills, and achievement in

various areas.
 Personality characteristics, which include traits, attitudes, interests, and

values.
 Adjustment and mental health, which involves detecting signs and symptoms
of psychological and neurological disorders and appraising the effectiveness
of psychological functioning.
(Sourse : Kazdin, 2000)
A test can be used for two broad objectives. First, it attempts to compare
the same student on two or more than two aspects of a trait, such as
attitude and aptitude of the same student; and second, two or more than two
students may be compared on the same trait like attitude of two students (Singh,
2002). 45
Techniques and Tools of The tests which you are going to study in this Unit are classified based on
the various objectives or purposes to be fulfilled which are not only related
to the learner but also useful to the teacher and teaching-learning process. Some
tests have been discussed in the subsequent sub-sections.
7.3.1 Paper Pencil Test

The paper pencil tests comprise a standard set of questions which are presented
to the student in writing on paper or Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets
that requires completion of cognitive tasks in the form of response by the student
on those papers by pencil/pen mark. These responses or answers are
summarized/scored to obtain a numerical value that represents a characteristic
of the student for which the test was administered. The paper pencil tests can
focus on what the student knows (achievement), is able to learn (ability or
aptitude), chooses or selects (interests, attitudes or values), or is able to do
(skill).
Following figure shows different types of paper pencil tests:
Figure 7.1: Paper Pencil Tests
These paper pencil tests are easy to administer and score. They are economic
and have standard questions which provide uniform procedure for all the students.
These tests provide standard scores to the teachers.
7.3.2 Oral Test

Oral tests are those tests in which the response, solution or the task requires
oral response to answer the question. Teachers’ conversation with the students
for the purpose of assessment, component of viva-voce examination for
completion of a course, etc. can be called oral test. You might have noticed
that in a written test, very little scope is left for the students to express
themselves on any aspect whereas in oral test, students enjoy freedom to express
themselves by citing many examples. In oral test, you can also use figures,
diagrams, charts, maps, models, signs, etc. for asking students to explain the
concepts covered in it. Oral tests have proved most valuable when used with
students having language disabilities, the illiterates, shy feeling and the young
46 children.
Actually, the oral tests rely on the students’ oral performance to display their and Evaluation
cognitive capabilities. This may be in the form of an oral discourse or a question
and the answer session between the teacher and the students. These are effective
for students with writing difficulties but may not be appropriate for students
with hearing and speech difficulties or those who are prone to nervousness.
For the students of speech difficulties, sign languages can be used, but in an
inclusive classroom setting, sometime it is not possible to apply sign language
as it requires sign language training both for the teachers and the students as
well.
Oral testing is particularly important in language classes because spoken
language plays an important role to express oneself. Oral tests focus on
students’ ability to communicate with what they know and how they articulate
the things. Since spoken language is creative and flexible, students may find
that oral testing gives them opportunities to self correct, ask for clarification
and use language creatively. Teachers may appreciate the opportunity to hear
students who choose not to speak on a daily basis in class.
The oral test is also having its own limitations as hardly it measures the skill
of writing of the students. Conducting an oral test is also time consuming method,
especially when it involves in-depth questioning. Oral test can be used as one
of the components of overall assessment of the performance of the students.
7.3.3 Aptitude Test
An aptitude test is also an instrument used to determine and measure an
individual’s ability and skills to acquire, through future training. Aptitude tests
may be classified into two groups : multiple aptitude test, and special aptitude
tests. Multiple aptitude tests are those which intend to measure various areas
of aptitude (musical, mechanical, etc.) each by independent sub-tests (Singh,
2002), whereas the special aptitude tests measure only one specific aptitude
like teaching, musical, etc. The multiple aptitude tests measure abilities of students
in more than one area simultaneously by using different sections of a test while
the special aptitude tests measure ability of the students in one area.
Aptitude tests are used to predict the future performance of the students. These
predictions are for the performance based on specific criterion (for example
you all appeared before an entrance test for admission to the B.Ed. programme.
The test included teaching aptitude components required to get into the B.Ed.
programme) which are prior to instruction, placement or training.
The aptitude tests are also used for guidance, as well as prediction of success
in some occupation. Training or academic courses are possible on the basis
of scores on standardized aptitude tests. For example, for pursuing teacher
education programmes, one needs to have teaching aptitude; for pursuing medical
courses, one needs to have medical aptitude; for pursuing engineering courses,
one needs to have engineering aptitude; for musical courses and sports related
courses, one requires to have musical and the sports aptitude respectively.
7.3.4 Achievement Test
Achievement tests are administered on students to measure their learning
outcomes. These tests are more prevalent in our schools. These tests show
as to what has been learned by the students, rather than to predict future
performance as in the case of aptitude tests. There are teacher made and
standardized achievement tests. The choice of your achievement test will depend
upon your purpose. The achievement tests can be used for following purposes: 47
Techniques and Tools of  to know the learning progress of the students.
 checking any weakness in the instruction.
 in formulation of learning objectives and provide an easy means of critical
examination of the content and the methods of teaching.
 adapting the instruction to the need of the individual learner.
 to know the effectiveness of any academic programme.
The achievement tests can be classified as :
 General achievement tests (batteries)
 Special achievement tests
General achivement tests attempt to measure the general educational achievement
of the students at different stages which includes the common subject areas
taught at the school in a particular class. Special achievement tests are meant
for measuring the achievement of students in selected areas which may be
grouped into two distinct groups – the diagnostic tests (discussed later in this
Unit separately) and the standardized summative achievement tests. Diagnostic
tests are used to know the areas of difficulties of the students and accordingly
to provide suitable remedial instructions to them. Standardized summative
achievement tests are used to grade the students in a particular standard and
also to certify them.
An important precaution before using any achievement test is to assess the
content validity with a standardized achievement test because content differs from
one school to the other and even in the same subject. For using any standardized
achievement test, you need to compare the content included in your curriculum
for the level it has prepared and the components of the content included in
the standardized test.
Though achievement tests are commonly used in schools to assess the students’
achievement, there are some limitations of these tests. The following are the
main limitations :
 Scores in the achievement test may not be the exact measure of achievement
in the concerned field as there is subjectivity in assessment and the test
selected may not completely represent the curriculum.
 Many factors such as standard of teaching, completion of curriculum, testing
condition, prior information to the students, practice of the students, etc.
may affect the students’ achievement, but those factors may not be measured
by the achievement test.
 Achievement scores of students differ in similar types of achievement tests.
There may be the possibility that a student scores differently in different
achievement tests meant for the same class.
You will study in detail the process of developing achievement tests
in Unit-9 of Block-3 of this Course.
7.3.5 Diagnostic – Remedial Test
The achievement tests which are used to identify the strengths and weaknesses
of the students are called diagnostic tests. The primary purpose of the test is
to identify the problems faced by the students in achieving the learning objectives
48 and to suggest remedial measures for them. Such tests are available in various
areas of study, such as in language, mathematics, science, etc. Diagnostic remedial and Evaluation
test is specifically required in case the teacher observes certain learning difficulties
in the students. For example, if a student scores 90 marks in Mathematics in
the Class IX annual examination, but if you observe that the same student scores
70 marks in Mathematics in Class X quarterly examination, thereafter 50 marks
in half-yearly examination, and 30 marks in pre-board examination. In this case,
there is a need for diagnosing the causes of securing lower marks in subsequent
examinations in Mathematics and accordingly provide remedial teaching to the
student.
Those tests which are devised to diagnose learning difficulties are considered
as remedial tests. In most of the cases the remedial tests are subjective and
individual oriented. If the problem is widespread among the group of students
in a class or a region then the group remedial test can be used.
You will study the details of diagnostic testing and remedial instruction in the
Unit-12, Block-3 of this Course.
7.3.6 Intelligence Test
The term ‘intelligence’ is difficult to define in a single sentence acceptable to
all. But intelligence can be understood as a general set of mental traits, which
is often reported as the mental abilities. Test of mental ability or intelligence
tests measure convergent thinking (Singh, 2002). Convergent thinking is a process
of finding out the solution of a problem. Guilford defines convergent thinking
is the ability to give correct answer to standard questions that do not require
creativity. For instance, most of the school based tasks can be done through
different tests. Many psychologists and educationists opined that intelligence is
a product of heredity and environment, but it is a matter of debate to get the
real contribution of heredity and environment for intelligence of an individual.
Many researches you will find in this regard. In this section, our intension is
to understand the measurement of intelligence and the tests used for measuring
intelligence.
Intelligence tests are used to provide a very general measure, usually reporting
a global test score. As they are general, intelligence tests are useful in predicting
a wide variety of tasks. Intelligence tests can be classified on various
backgrounds.
On the basis of administration it can be classified into two categories :
a) Individual tests
b) Group tests
Let us talk about each category.
Individual intelligence test is one which can be administered on one person at
a time. The first individual intelligence test was the Binet-Simon scale (1904).
Individual test requires a highly skilled and experienced test administrator because
he/she has to give exact instructions to the students in different sections and
sub-sections of the test.
The group intelligence test is one which can be administered to more than one
person at a time, that is, it can be administered on a group. The Army Alpha
Test, 1917 (Verbal) and Army Beta Test (non-language) were the first group
intelligence tests. They are generally used in educational setting for adolescents 49
Techniques and Tools of and adults. At present you will find many such standardized intelligence tests
available in different departments such as psychology and education of various
institutions for use in schools, for recruiting personnel in different jobs and also
for using in masters and doctoral researches.
Intelligence tests can also be classified on the basis of the nature of items included
in the tests such as verbal and non-verbal tests. In verbal tests, the instructions
and items are presented to the student in written language, whereas, in non-
verbal tests, items are given in the form of figures, charts, diagrams, etc. Let
us now discuss the measurement of intelligence, that is intelligence quotient.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) : Intelligence of an individual can be measured
by using the following intelligence quotient (IQ) formula.
I.Q. =
Chronological age : The exact age of the individual whose intelligence will
be measured. This can be calculated counting the age from the date of birth
of an individual. Chronological age of a child never varies.
Mental age : Mental age is calculated by comparing a child’s obtained score
from the intelligence test with the average score at his/her age level. For example,
if average score in an intelligence test for six years age group children is 70,
and a child of this age group scored 70, then it will be considered that the
mental age of that child is 7. In case, the same child scored the average score
of another intelligence test meant for the age group of eight years, then the
child’s mental age will be 8. Therefore, mental age of a child may vary from
the chronological age. In different cases it may be same as chronological age
or above or below of it.
Let us discuss it with an example :
Let the chronological age of a child is nine (CA – 9) and mental age is 10
(MA-10).
I.Q. =
=
= 111.11
To interpret the IQ score, you can refer the intelligence table as follows :
Table 7.1: IQ Reference Table
IQ score range Category
Under 70 Feeble mindedness
70-79 Border line
80-89 Dullness
90-109 Average or normal
110-119 Superior
120-140 Very superior
Over 140 Genius or almost genius
50 (Source : https://www.iqtestforfree.net/iq-scale.html, retrieved on 10.8.2017)
As per the above example, you can say that the child having the IQ of 111.11 and Evaluation
is in superior category.

unit.
1. What do you mean by a test?
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
2. List different types of paper-pencil tests?
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
3. What do you mean by oral tests?
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
4. For whom are the oral tests more effective?
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
5. What is the purpose of diagnostic tests?
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
6. Define the concept of mental age.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
7.4 TOOLS
In the preceding section, you have studied about the various tests. In this section,
you will study about various tools including the scales, schedules and inventories.
To measure the scholastic abilities of the students, we usually use the tests such
as achievement, intelligence, aptitude, etc., but for measuring most of the co-
scholastic abilities, we use the tools such as rating scale, inventories, checklists,
schedules, questionnaires, etc. In simple language, you can understand a tool
as an instrument to measure something. In education, the word tool is used
to measure various traits of students. Now, let us discuss each tool with details. 51
7.4.1 Rating Scales
Rating scale is one of the important tools widely used in psychology and
education. It is used for assessing attitudes of students on any situation, idea,
object, character, person or an attribute. In a rating scale, the opinions are given
in various degrees such as strongly agree, agree, and disagree; highly satisfied,
satisfied, and dissatisfied, etc. A rating scale is prepared always in odd number
points like 3-point scale, 5-point scale, 7-point scale, or 9-point scale. It is
in odd number points because, a definite middle measuring point will be possible
only when the scale is odd points. You might have observed that many persons
have the attitude to opine their opinions at the middle rating. Rating scales can
be presented in different categories. The most commonly used categories of
rating scales used in the schools are as follows :
(i) Numerical scale
(ii) Graphic scale
Let us discuss the above mentioned scales briefly.
i) Numerical scale : In this type of rating scale, numbers are assigned in
different degrees. It is therefore called numerical rating scale. In a numerical
scale a sequence of definite numbers is supplied to an observer. The assigned
numbers against the item carry certain meaning/interpretation. See the example
given below :
Question : How do you consider Sudhir’s behaviour in your class? (in this
example, Sudhir is a student)
9 Most pleasant
8 Extremely pleasant
7 Moderately pleasant
6 Mildly pleasant
5 Indifferent
4 Mildly unpleasant
3 Moderately unpleasant
2 Extremely unpleasant
1 Most unpleasant
Instead of nine-point scale you can have 3-point, 5-point or 7-point scale. In
a 5-point scale you can have the following characteristics:
5 Most pleasant
4 Moderately pleasant
3 Indifferent
2 Moderately unpleasant
1 Most unpleasant
Numerical rating scales are the easiest to construct and to apply. They are also
the simplest in terms of handling the results. However, numerical scales are often
rejected in favor of other types of scales because it is believed that they suffer
from various biases and errors.
ii) Graphic Scale : The graphic scale is a popular and most widely used
52
rating scale. In this scale, a straight line is shown vertically and horizontally
with various clues to help the rater. The line is either segmented into units and Evaluation
or continuous. If the line is segmented then the number of units can vary
from case to case. Let us try to understand from the example given below:
Question : How effective was the teacher in the class?
1 2 3 4 5
Very Moderately Average Moderately Very
Effective Effective Ineffective Ineffective
Question : Semester system of education encourages learners to engage in their
studies regularly.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly
agree disagree
The above two examples are presented in 5-point rating scale. Scoring to this
type of items are done as per the instructions given in the test. In case it is
a positive item, the highest positive degrees of the response are given highest
points and for the negative items lower points. For example, in a positive item,
5 points can be given for ‘strongly agree’, 4 to ‘agree’, 3 to ‘undecided’, 2
to ‘disagree’, and 1 to ‘strongly disagree’ in a 5-point scale. This is vice-versa
in case of negative items.
Limitations of rating scales : The rating scales have certain limitations. Some
of them are discussed as follows :
 Error of leniency: There is a constant tendency among the raters to rate
those whom they know well or in whom they are closely involved, higher
than they should. Such raters are called ‘easy rater’. Some raters become
aware of the feeling of easy rating and consequently rate individuals lower
than they should. Such raters are called ‘hard raters’. The leniency error
refers to a general and consistent tendency for a rater to rate too high
or too low for whatever reasons.
 Error of central tendency: Most of the raters hesitate to rate the
individuals on the extremes of the scale, instead they follow the middle
of the scale. Hence the result gets distorted.
 Halo effect: It is an error which obscures the cluster of traits within an
individual. The rater develops a general opinion about the person’s merit
and his ratings on specific traits and is greatly influenced by the impression.
It results in a false positive co-relation among the traits which are rated.
 The logical error: It is due to the fact that judges are likely to give similar
ratings for traits which they feel logically related to each other.
 The contrast error: It is due to a tendency of a rater to rate others
in the opposite direction (contrasting) from himself in a trait.
 The proximity error: It has been seen that adjacent traits on a rating
tend to inter correlate higher than remote ones, their degree of actual
similarity being approximately equal. This error may be counteracted to
some extent by placing similar traits further apart and the different ones
close together.
(Source : ES-333, B.Ed., IGNOU, 2010) 53
Techniques and Tools of 7.4.2 Questionnaire
A questionnaire is a device comprising a series of questions dealing with some
psychological, social, and educational topic(s) given to an individual or a group
of individuals, with the object of obtaining data with regard to some problems
under investigation. (Koul,1997) Questionnaire is a common tool that we, the
teachers usually apply to collect data from a situation, condition or prevailing
practice.
The questionnaire can be classified in terms of the nature of the questions
constructed to gather the data from the stakeholders. It may be closed or open
ended. Closed questionnaires are those where the respondents answer in limited
way, like responding in ‘yes’ or ‘no’; underlining the replied among the pre-
defined responses, putting the sign ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’. Whereas in open
questionnaires the respondents are free to share, clarify and put their view.
Let us discuss certain examples of closed and open ended questions.
Examples of open-ended questions :
 Describe any one of the wars fought for independence in India.
 Write an essay on Quit India Movement.
Examples of closed-ended questions :
 In which year Quit India Movement took place?
a) 1941 b) 1942 c) 1943 d) 1944
According to other classification, questionnaire may be Structured or Non-
Structured. A structured questionnaire contains definite, concrete and directed
questions, whereas non-structured questionnaires are often used as the interview
guide which is non-directive. It is an important instrument being used to gather
information from widely scattered sources and also used when factual information
is desired. (IGNOU, 2007)
Advantages of questionnaires : Some of the advantages of questionnaires
are enumerated as follows :
 The responses are gathered in a standardized way.
 Questionnaires are more objective, certainly more so than interviews.
 Relatively quick to collect information.
 Potential information can be collected from a large portion of a group.
Limitations of questionnaires : Although the questionnaire is one of the widely
used tools but it has also certain limitations which can be enumerated as follows :
 Not easy to be used with children or illiterates.
 Respondents may not agree to respond in writing.
 Sometimes it is difficult to construct questions on complex and crucial topics.
 Respondent interprets the questions from his/her angle of understanding.
 External factors may affect the response.
7.4.3 Inventories
An inventory is constructed in the form of a questionnaire. But the inventories
are more exhaustive than questionnaire. Inventories have been mostly used for
measuring personality traits, interests, values and adjustments i.e. for assessing
self-reporting affective domain of behaviour. It consists of a series of questions
54
or statements to which the subject responds to by answering ‘Yes’ or ‘No’,
or ‘Agree’ or ‘Disagree’. This can also be answered in some similar ways to and Evaluation
indicate preferences or to make those items that describes the subject’s typical
behaviour.
In the inventory, the statements are put in first person, For example, “I think
I am comparatively more tense than others”. In the questionnaire, there is a
question in a second person, for example “Do you think you are more tense
than other persons around you?”
The term inventory is also used in another sense. That is, an inventory of various
items is available in an office room or inventory of clothes to be given to the
washer man, etc, but in the educational evaluation, in a school and classroom
situation, inventories are used for the aforementioned concepts.
Guidelines for the administration of the inventory are as follows
 The teacher should explain printed instructions very clearly to the learners.
 The teachers should make it clear to the learners’ that the data will be
kept confidential.
 The teacher should remove doubts, if any, regarding the manner of filling
the inventory or the questionnaire.
 The teacher should take all other timely precautions for preparing a state
of mind conducive to response.
7.4.4 Checklist
According to Koul (1997), a checklist is a simple device consisting of a prepared
list of items which are prepared by the teacher to be relevant to the problem
being studied. After each item a space is provided for the observer to indicate
the presence or absence of the item by checking ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or a type of
number of items may be indicated by inserting the appropriate word or number.
The checklist is a systematic and quick way to gather data of the relevant factors
and take actions accordingly. A very simple example is being given below :
For example :
Is the school building fire proof? Yes/No
Does the school follow rain harvesting policy? Yes/No
Is the school building earthquake proof? Yes/No
It is noteworthy that the responses collected on the checklist are as a matter
of fact not any judgment. It is a good tool in gathering facts for educational
survey, checking your school library, laboratory, game facilities, school buildings,
textbooks, etc. It may also be used to check the availability of other facilities
in your school.
Checklists are also applied to classroom instructional activities such as studying
the working habits of students, supervising classroom instructions, teacher –pupil
relationships, etc.
7.4.5 Interview Schedule
Interview is a communication or conversation by which a person asks interviewer
and interviewee responds verbally in the face-to-face situation. An interview can
also be conducted through skype electronic media. It can be conducted through
telephonic conversation or through by using internet. It is a common technique
for collecting required information about an individual. You have learnt about
interview technique in Unit-5 of this Block. The interview schedule is a tool 55
Techniques and Tools of with the help of which the interview is conducted.
Interview schedule can be classified according to the purpose for which it is
structured and used. If it is to resolve the research hypothesis, it is a research
interview schedule and if it is for clinical purpose, it a clinical interview schedule.
On the bases of the structure, the interview schedules are categorized as
structured or unstructured.
 A structured interview schedule is one in which the procedure to be
followed is standardized and it is determined in advance of the interview.
The same types of questions are presented to the interviewee and the
wordings of the instructions to the interviewee are specified.
 In the unstructured interview schedule, the series of questions are decided
in advance but the interviewer is largely free to reorganize the questions
and timing to attain the objective of the interview.
7.4.6 Observation Schedule
Observation has been the first practice of assessment that we do in our
classroom. Each observed incident, expression and reaction has useful data for
teachers, hence the observation is an effective tool for us. Observation is the
process in which one or more persons observe what is happening in a real-
life situation, and he/she classifies and records pertinent happening according
to pre-planned scheme. It is used to evaluate the overt behaviour use uniformly
either American or British English i.e., spellings of words, etc. of individuals
in both the controlled and uncontrolled situations. (Koul, 1997, p.170)
The observation schedules are the enumerations, listing of the facts or other
data that are observed under observation process. Like questionnaires, the
observation schedules are also classified as structured or unstructured. This can
also be classified as participant and non-participant observation. You have already
studied various types of observation techniques in Unit-5 of this Block. In case
the things to be observed are properly defined, the style of recording the
observed information, standardized conditions of observation and the selection
of pertinent data of observation then it is a structured observations (Kothari
& Garg, 2014, p.91) and the schedule is a structured observation schedule.
On the other hand when these are not pre-determined aspects of observation,
such observation schedules are unstructured schedules.
Merits of observation : The following are some of the merits of observation
 Through observation the data are gathered from a natural setup.
 The data observed are direct or first hand.
 As the data are first hand or direct, while doing observation we can correlate
what is being said and what is being shown.
 Does not rely upon people’s willingness or ability to provide information.
Demerits of observation : The observation has also the following demerits :
 The observation if not done with planning then it will not bring out authentic
information.
 Observer’s biases may affect the result.
 There may come ‘Hawthorne effect’, that is when the person gets to know
that he/she is being observed then the real problems may not be shared
or shown.
 Does not develop the understanding why people behave in a particular
manner.
56
Table 7.2: Strengths and weaknesses of various tools and Evaluation
Tool Strengths Weaknesses
Tests*  Economical  Norms may be inappropriate
 Standard Questions  Standardized tests may be too
 Commercial tests Strong in broad and general
Technical Qualities  Standard Score may distort
 Objective Tests Easy to differences
Score  Standardized tests may give
 Standardized tests provide false sense of validity
Uniform Procedure for all  Locally developed tasks often
subjects and standards technically weak test anxiety
 Restricted to subjects who can
read and write
Scales  Consumes less time to  Consumes time to construct
administer  Items if not made valid data can
 Interesting to rater be misleading
 Can be used by little  More than three point scale are
training difficult for some raters to
 Wide range of Application answer
Question-  Economical  Response rate of mailed
naires*  Can be anonymous questionnaire
 Standard Questions &  Inability to probe and clarify
Uniform Procedure  Scoring open ended items
 Usually easy to score  Faking and social desirability
 Provides time for subject to  Restricted to subjects who can
think about responses read or write
 Biased or ambiguous terms
 Response set
Inventories  Exhaustive  Can be only used when

 Appropriate for assessing required to enlist things.
self reporting affective  Lacks explanations.
behaviour.  Ill-preparation may lack
 Used when quick overview essential ingredients of
is required inventories.
Checklists  Simple Device  Limited in response

 Easy to Use  Restricted to one aspect
 Quick collection of data  Factual
 Systematic  Useful when used in support of
other tools
Interviews*  Flexible  Costly

 Adaptable  Time consuming
 Ability to probe and clarify  Interviewer bias
 Ability to include non  Not anonymous
verbal behaviour  Subject effects
 High response rate  Effect of interviewer
 Used with non readers characteristics
 Requires training
 Leading questions
Observation  Captures natural behaviour  Costly

Schedules*  Mitigate social desirability,  Time consuming
response set and subject  Effect of observer on subject
effects  Observer bias
 Relatively unobtrusive  Requires training
 Reliable for low interface  Reliability difficult for complex
observations behavior and high inference
observations
 Inability to probe and clarify
 Usually not anonymous
 Interpretations of high
inference observations
(Source : McMillan & Schumacher, 2006)*

57
Techniques and Tools of Table 7.2 summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of tests and tools. All tools
have their strengths and also weaknesses. A single tool can not be suitable to
use for all types of measurement. The data gathered through a checklist can
not be possible by using a scale and accordingly, data received through interview
is also somehow different from observation.

unit.
7. What is a numerical rating scale?
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8. How do the questionnaires differ from inventories?
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9. Give two dimensions of a school where checklist can be used to collect
information.
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10. How is an unstructured interview schedule better than structured one?
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11. Write any two demerits of an observation schedule.
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7.4.7 Anecdotal Records

Every teacher (also parents, friends, relatives, etc.) observes his/her students
on the day-to-day basis and those observations can be formally recorded to
his own understanding or to that of others who will later deal with the students.
Such reports of a student recorded by informal observations in the form of
anecdotes (not only of present, but past too, that is childhood, nursery and
pre-school days, etc.) by parents, siblings, friends and peer group are called
anecdotal records. (IGNOU, 2010)
The anecdotal records provide a means for the observation of one’s behaviour.
58
A record of events is one dependable data that will remain unchanged from
the time it is made until the time we want to refer to it. A set of such records and Evaluation
provides stable evidence on which later appraisals can be raised. Making a
record of an observation of a child’s behaviour, a prompt record, while the
behaviour is still fresh in the mind, is dependable as it eliminates the limitations
and distortions of memory. Such a record can be used, with practice, to provide
a relatively direct and objective report of actions, with reactions of some
observers as well.
These records serve two purposes. The first purpose may be to give you practice
in studying students with a view to develop their understanding and increasing
their sympathetic insight. Second purpose is that it provides an informal and
usually qualitative picture of certain aspects of an individual’s behaviour. It is
a primary aspect of social functioning or adjustment to personal problems that
one hopes to illuminate by records of incidents of school behaviour. The
interaction of a child with the other children in a room, aggression or withdrawal,
events that throw light on the child’s role in the group and his reaction to it
are good materials for records. Indications of personnel tensions and adaptation
to them, habitual mood and temper or special crises and adjustment are worth
recording.
Anecdotal records should be factual report of an event in a child’s life reported
with adequate details so that it is a meaningful evidence of his/her behaviour.
A good Anecdotal record has the following features:
 It provides an accurate description of any event,
 It describes a setting sufficiently to give the events meaning.
 If it includes interpretations or evaluation by the recorder, this interpretation
is separated from the description and its different status is clearly identified.
 The event relates to the child’s personal development or social interactions.
(Source : Anecdotal Record, Unit 7, ES-333, IGNOU, 2010)
7.4.8 Learners Portfolios and Rubrics

You have already studied about portfolio in Unit-5 of this Block. We will discuss
in this section some more details about portfolio as an evaluation tool. A portfolio
is a purposeful, systematic collection and evaluation of student work that
documents progress towards meeting learning objectives. Portfolios have been
used for years in the various fields such as architecture, art and journalism as
the primary method of evaluating performance. In the field of education, portfolios
are being used with increasing frequency, especially with assessment of reading
and writing skills. (McMillan &Schumacher, 2006, pp.193) A portfolio (a
collection of the student’s work in an area, showing growth, self-reflection and
achievement) is a systematic collection of work, often including work in progress,
revisions, student self analysis and reflections on what the student has learned.
(Popham, 2008)
Portfolio comprises artistic pieces or written work of the student. The student
might also include letters in the portfolios describing each entry and its
importance. They may include graphs, diagrams, pictures or digital slideshows,
power point presentations, etc. They may also include recordings of the student
reading, their work, unedited and final drafts of essays or poem, list of books 59
Techniques and Tools of and references to a particular theme, peer comments, videotapes, laboratory
reports and computer programmes. Anything that demonstrates learning in the
area being taught and assessed can also be included. (Popham, 2008)
Few common portfolios and their purposes are as follows :
(i) Growth portfolios
 To show growth or change over time
 To help develop process skills such as self-evaluation and goal-setting
 To identify strengths and weaknesses
 To track the development
(iii) Showcase portfolios
 To showcase end-of-year/semester/trimester accomplishments of the
students
 To prepare a sample of best work by the students of the school
 To showcase student perceptions of favorite, best or most important
works
 To communicate a student’s current aptitudes to future endeavours
(iv) Evaluation portfolios
 To document achievement of students’ for grading purposes
 To document progress towards standards set by the school
 To place students appropriately in a particular section or community
of learning group
Creating portfolios : Students should be involved in selecting the pieces that
will make up the portfolios. The criteria for creating a portfolio is as follows :
 Ask students to include a rationale of their selection.
 Have each student write a ‘guide’ to his or her portfolio, explaining how
strengths and weaknesses are reflected in their work.
 Include self and peer critique, indicating specifically what is good and what
needs improvement.
 Model self criticism of your own production.
To evaluate these portfolios, scoring rubrics are used that actually determine
the quality of students’ performance.
(Source : Woolfolk et.al. 2012)
Rubric
A rubric is an assessment tool for the teachers to assess performances of the
students in different areas with fixing certain criteria of assessment. To measure
students’ performance based on a pre-determined set of criteria, a rubric or
scoring scale is typically created which contains the essential criteria for the
60
task and appropriate levels of performance for each criterion.
A rubric comprises two components: criteria (vertical column) and levels of and Evaluation
performance (horizontal column). Any rubric has at least two criteria and at least
two levels of performance (which may be added as per the requirement of
the teacher). The criteria for the performance on a task, are listed in the left-
hand column in the rubric below (concepts, facts and figures, organization/
presentation and references) and the performance is marked in three levels-
poor, average and good. Weightage to each criteria is also given in the second
column (Refer Table 7.3).
Table 7.3: Students’ performance rubrics
Criteria Weightages Performance
to the Poor Average Good
criteria 1 2 3
Concepts X2
Facts and figures X3
Organization and
Presentation X3
References X1
Finally, the rubric above needs a mechanism of scoring. The weigthage to
the above criteria are : two times to concept (X2); three times to facts
and figures (X3); three times to organization and presentation (X3); and one
time to references are (X1). Accordingly, points for the criteria ‘concept’ will
be: poor–2; average – 4; and good – 6. Scoring to other criteria can be done
accordingly.
Criteria Weightages Performance
to the Poor Average Good
criteria 1 2 3
Concepts 2-times 2 4 6
Facts and figures 3-times 3 6 9
Organization and
Presentation 3-times 3 6 9
References 1-time 1 2 3
Total 9 18 27
Accordingly, score of each student may be calculated. You can also use many
other methods to score the rubrics.
Activity 1
Cite an example of an activity that you would like to conduct among
the students to whom you teach and prepare a rubric for its assessment.
Also specify the scoring procedure.
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......................................................................................................... 61
Assessment and Evaluation 7.5 LET US SUM UP
In this Unit, you have studied about the tests and tools which can be used
in schools easily. We discussed the tests, their types such as paper-pencil tests,
oral tests, etc. We also discussed about commonly used tests in the school
system such as aptitude tests, achievement tests, diagnostic-remedial tests and
intelligence tests. You have also studied when to use the aptitude test and how
the achievement tests have become the most used tests in our schools.
You also studied about the different tools like rating scales, questionnaires,
inventories, checklists, interview and observation schedules, anecdotal records,
portfolios and rubrics and their uses and limitations.
The contents and discussions covered in this Unit will help you to conceptualise
and understand Unit-9, 10 and 11 presented in Block-3 of the same Course.
The details about developing achievement test, diagnostic remedial test, and
commonly used tests in schools have been elaborately discussed in Block-3
of this Course.

Anastasi, A. (1968). Psychological Testing. London: MacMillan Company.
Binet, A. (1916). The Development of Intelligence in Children (translated by
E. S. Kite ). Baltimore: Warmick and York.
Brody, N. (1976). Intellegence , New York: Academic Press.INC
English, H.B. & A.C. English (1958). A comprehensive Dictionary of psychological
and Psychoanalytical Terms. New York: David McKay Company, Inc.
Freeman, S.F (1962). Theory and Practice of Psychological Testing (3rd ed.),
New Delhi, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.
Gronlund, Norman E. and Robert L. Linn. (1990). Measurement and Evaluation
in Teaching. 6th ed. New York, Macmillan, p. 5.
IGNOU (2010). B.Ed. Course ES-333, ‘Educational Evaluation’ Unit 7, Types
of Tools, IGNOU: New Delhi.
IGNOU (2007). Tools and Techniques of Data Collection in MES-016-
Educational Research : Research Design. New Delhi: School of Education,
IGNOU.
Kazdin, Alan E. (2000). Encyclopedia of psychology. Washington, D.C.,
American Psychological Association, vol. 8, p. 47-48.
Kothari, C.R. & Garg, G. (2014). Research Methodology-Methods and
Techniques, New Delhi: New Age International Publishers.
Koul, L. (1997). Methodology of Educational Research, Delhi: Vikas
Publications.
Popham,W.J. (2008). Transformative Assessment. USA:ASCD
Singh, A.K. (2002). Test Construction in Tests, Measurements and Research
Methods in Behavioural Sciences. Patna: Bharti Bhawan Publishers.
Sternberg, R.J. (1985). Beyond IQ- A triarchic Thoery of intelligence ,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
62
Woolfolk, A., Mishra, G. & Jha, A. K. (2012). Classroom Assessment, and Evaluation
Grading and Standardized Testing in Fundamentals of Educational Psychology,
Delhi: Pearson.
Website Referred
http://busyteacher.org/14344-6-assessment-testing-strategies-esl-classroom.html
dated 14/-5/16
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/cookbook/info_questionnaires/printable.pdf
http://www.elon.edu/students/portfolios/dated 10/07/16
http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/rubrics.htm dated 14/07/2016
https://www.iqtestforfree.net/iq-scale.html, retrieved on 10.8.2017

1. A test is a standardized instrument designed to measure objectively one
or more aspects of a total personality of a person through the sample of
verbal and/or non-verbal responses.
2. Achievement, aptitude, subject-wise criterion test, intelligence test, etc.
3. The oral tests are those tests in which the response, solution or the task
requires oral response to answer the question.
4. Oral tests are effective for students with language disabilities, illiterates, shy
feeling and young children.
5. The main purpose of diagnostic test is to identify the problems faced by
the students in achieving the learning objectives and to suggest remedial
programmes for them.
6. Mental age is calculated by comparing child’s obtained score from the
intelligence test with the average score at his/her age group.
7. In numerical rating scale, numbers are assigned to different degrees for
responding to an item in the rating scale.
8. In questionnaires, the questions are written in second person whereas the
questions in inventories are written in first person.
9. School library, laboratory, game facilities, school buildings, textbooks, etc.
10. Unstructured interviews are focused, in depth and non directive hence more
data can be gathered on the problem under investigation, whereas in the
case of structured interview options of answers are given and it is also
restricted.
11. Observer biases and Hawthorne effect.
63
Assessment and Evaluation UNIT 8 ICT BASED ASSESSMENT
AND EVALUATION
Structure
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Objectives
8.3 Importance of ICT in Assessment and Evaluation
8.4 Use of ICT in Various Types of Assessment and Evaluation
8.5 Role of Teacher in Technology Enabled Assessment and Evaluation
8.6 Online and E-examination
8.7 Learners’ E-portfolio and E-rubrics
8.8 Use of ICT Tools for Preparing Tests and Analysing Results
8.9 Let Us Sum Up
8.1 INTRODUCTION
In Units-5 and 7 of Block-2 of this Course, we have discussed various tools
and techniques used for assessing learning of children. Many of them such as
achievement, aptitude, and intelligence tests are used in the day-to-day classroom
situations. Nevertheless, as you know, the constructivist approach in the teaching–
learning processes, facilitate teachers to apply innovative information and
communication technologies (ICTs) to assess children. For the last few decades,
ICT has become an important component of the classroom activities. Teachers
gather information via internet and other ICT resources for utilizing it in the
teaching and learning process. Children are also using computer and other
electronic devices for self-learning and also acquiring more knowledge with the
existing curriculum they study. It is under this context; you need to be oriented
and equipped in utilizing ICT for evaluating student performance. Various ICT
tools are available that help teachers to assess the performance of students.
In this Unit we will discuss various aspects such as importance of ICT in
evaluation, role of teacher in ICT based evaluation, few forms of ICT techniques
used to asses children’s progress and use of ICT in preparing and analyzing
evaluation tools.
8.2 OBJECTIVES
After going though this Unit, you should be able to:
 discuss the role of ICT in assessment and evaluation,
 describe the use of ICT in various types of evaluation such as online and
e-examination,
64
 discuss the of use of different tools to create online/e-exams, ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
 discuss e-portfolio and e-rubrics as types of evaluation,
 describe the use of different tools to create online/e-exams, and
 identify ICT tools to prepare tests and analyse results.
8.3 IMPORTANCE OF ICT INASSESSMENTAND

EVALUATION
The nature of teaching, learning and evaluation has undergone changes with the
emergence of ICT. The ICT, as you have studied in various units of this course
is a broad term that encompasses various tools, techniques, devices and software
applications that are used to communicate and disseminate information. The ICTs
include television, computer, iPod’s, learning management system(LMS), virtual
reality, social networking sites, online teaching, online digital repositories, etc.
ICT has number of applications in education which develop skills and
competencies in individuals to succeed in the workplace and lead a quality life.
As we know, in 21st century being complex in nature, education will promote
individuals to develop talents and proficiencies to surmount the crisis that they
would come across. Even if we have a balanced curriculum, pitfalls exist. In
this technology era most of our classrooms fail to adopt and organize teaching-
learning sessions integrating technology. What are the applications of ICT in
education? This Unit discusses one of such applications of ICT.
In teaching and learning, you may employ ICT for both teaching and evaluating
student’s performance. You are familiar with the term ‘evaluation’. Before moving
further, let us be clear about these two terms ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’.
As you have already studied in Unit-1 of Block-1 of this Course, ‘assessment’
is a process of determining the present status/condition of something while
evaluation is the process of measuring something to judge and value it.’
Assessment is a step involved in evaluation. Both assessment and evaluation
are integral of the teaching-learning process. These help you to ensure as to
how far you are able to transact curriculum and facilitate learning in the children.
Now our concern as a teacher is to know as to how we can utilize ICT for
both assessment and evaluation? Definitely, there are possibilities which would
enable you to find instances where you can use ICT to evaluate student’s
achievement. Thus ICT acts as an effective medium for teaching-learning and
evaluation. Integrating ICT in evaluating children’s performance is important for
the reasons as follows:
 ICT-enabled assessments provide children scope for engaging in individualised
testing situations. In such contexts, the learning proceeds in tune with the
pace of the individual attempting tests.
 ICT integrated assessment provides immediate feedback to the children.
Technology enabled assessment enhances the confidence level of children
as they receive results of their learning instant.
 The assessment could be arranged in such a way that children would get
instant feedback and thus can correct their mistakes and move forward.
 The frequency of assessment can be increased that would benefit children
and will continuously engage them in their studies. 65
Techniques and Tools of  It generates interest and increases motivation among leaners as they try
out varied types of technology assisted tests
 Technology assisted testing/assessment techniques are cost effective and can
be easily prepared.
 The principles of learning like ‘own time and own pace’ is emphasised
while using ICT for assessment.
 It helps to develop higher order thinking and digital literacy skills among
children
 The problems like “access and quality” are minimised with the use of ICT
in assessment and evaluation.
 It caters to the tastes of multiple audiences who differ in intelligence,
creativity, etc.

unit.
1. Why do you consider ICT important in evaluating students’ performance?
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8.4 USE OF ICT IN VARIOUS TYPES OF

ASSESSMENTAND EVALUATION
Evaluation, as you know, is an integral part of teaching-learning process. It
enables you to evaluate the instructional activities and learning achievement of
children. The paper and pencil tests, unit and term end examinations, oral
questioning techniques are some of the traditional evaluation methods. But the
emergence of ICT has influenced evaluation methods. A simple example would
be recording the marks of children in an excel sheet. Earlier the marks of children
were recorded in paper sheets but today application softwares such as Microsoft
excel are used to record it. It is to be noted here that the use of ICT in evaluation
would be viewed on two dimensions; technology as a tool and technology
as an assisting medium. Let us discuss two simple examples. A student using
a video camera to record the teaching session would be an example of using
technology as a tool while analysing the recorded video would be a case of
using technology as assisting evaluation. Before moving further, you may go
through the graphic, which will help you to differentiate the different types of
evaluation.
66
Figure 8.1: Types of Evaluation ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
evaluation
is conducted at the
end of an instruction
will
As a teacher, our concern is about using ICT in various types of evaluation.

Let us explore the various ways of it. As mentioned, diagnostic evaluation is
performed before the teaching session. At this stage you may utilize ICT in
place of verbal questioning. For example, multiple choice questions can be
prepared in computers (using any application software) and children may be
directed to attempt those questions. While preparing questions, animations and
motivating appeal should be provided. Similarly in case of formative evaluation,
children may be directed to attempt the questions provided in the learning
management systems (platforms like, Google classroom, MOODLE and Edmodo
may be used. The home page screen shots of few such platforms are given
in Figure 8.2. During summative evaluation, the possibilities of online examination
could be tried out.
Figure 8.2: Learning Management System
(Sources: https://moodle.org/.,https://www.edmodo.com/.,http://
anz.blackboard.com/.,https://classroom.google.com/h)
Activity 1
How will you use technology in formative evaluation? Suggest your
plan?
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Assessment and Evaluation Check Your Progress 2
Note: (a) Write your answers in the space given below.
(b) Compare your answers with the one given at the end of
this Unit.
2. Differentiate between diagnostic, formative and summative evaluation.
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3. How will you use technology for summative evaluation? Suggest a plan.
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8.5 ROLE OF TEACHER IN TECHNOLOGY

ENABLED ASSESSMENTAND EVALUATION
Teachers play a pivotal role in deciding the technology that may be incorporated
for testing the students’ achievement. Technology can be employed both for
evaluation and assessment as assessment is a part of evaluation. In earlier days,
paper and pencil tests were the prominent testing devices but today, number
of technological tools have been identified and developed that makes testing
easier and more joyful for children. So whether it is evaluation or assessment,
the creativity and skill of teacher matters in utilizing technology. A framework
namely, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) could be of
great use to teachers at this stage. The framework simply describes the individual
and combined knowledge of any teacher in three areas namely Technology,
Pedagogy and Content. TPACK is basically defined as a framework of teacher
knowledge for technology integration. Teacher knowledge is defined as a
complex interaction and intersection among three bodies of knowledge within
the framework of TPACK: content, pedagogy and technology (Koehler &
Mishra, 2008).
Figure 8.3: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

68 (Source: https://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Policy-Reports/Digital-Strategy-for-
Schools-2015-2020.pdf)
TPACK could be considered as one of the bases for selection and integration ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
of technology in assessing children’s performance. Thus your role in technology-
based evaluation is to employ various technologies in testing. This would be
easy if you use TPACK framework, which encompasses decisions concerning
technology based evaluation. Let us see how the concept of TPACK is employed
in assessment. For example, suppose you had taught the concept kinetic energy
to eighth class students. Kinetic energy is the energy possessed by an object
due to its motion. After teaching the concept, you try to check whether the
students have grasped the concept or not? Rather than asking verbal questions,
you may employ technology. At this stage, remember that, you should have
knowledge of both pedagogy and content which help you to transact the concept
in a meaningful way.
Coming to technology based assessment, let us see what you have done. First,
you would have listed the technologies and various applications like computer,
online testing, rubric, computer-based testing, learning management systems,
applications for developing quizzes and multiple choice questions (MCQs), etc.
From the list, you may select computer testing and applications used to develop
MCQs. In the process, you may display the below given figure and ask children
to identify the ball that would make bigger splash. For that, a MCQ was prepared
(may use Hot Potatoes, application for creating MCQ’s) as given below:
Q.1: Which ball will make bigger splash?
a) Small
b) Big
c) Both
The above example is a simple way of employing technology in assessment.

It is up to you what technology is to be adopted for assessing children’s learning.
So number of factors need to be considered for utilizing technology for 69
assessment. Let us summarize these roles as given below:
Techniques and Tools of  Decide the content/topic to be assessed
 Identification of suitable technologies for assessment
 Preparation of relevant tools and techniques
 Placement of questions to be included in the assessment
 Reviewing the questions
 Tryout of the tool and rectifying mistakes
 Execution of the test
Activity 2
Prepare a teaching module employing TPACK framework. Discuss
the factors that you have considered in selecting the technologies
while preparing the teaching module.
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Note: (a) Write your answer in the space given below.
(b) Compare your answer with the one given at the end of
this Unit.
4. Discuss the role of a teacher in technology-based assessment and
evaluation.
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8.6 ONLINEAND E-EXAMINATION

The terms online and e-examination connote the same meaning and are used
interchangeably, even though difference exists between them. In online
examination the assessment occurs in an internet environment while e-
exams could be through any digital resources. For example, the LMS
platform like MOODLE require an internet connection to work and the
assessment occurs in an internet environment. While the LMS platform, eXe
software (eXe is a website to develop online content) operate both offline and
online. Thus the assessment carried out in eXe is more of electronic assessment
in nature. As the name indicates, online exams occur in an internet environment;
mostly carried out with the help of computers. While e-exams can use any form
of digital devices, the widespread use of intent technologies has exposed more
avenues in engaging assessment through digital applications. Similarly, online and
70 e-exams are gaining popularity in the education sector.
How examinees appear in online exams/e-exams? Do examinees have to take ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
any precautions? What is the nature of such exams? Let us try to answer few
such questions related to online/e-exams. As you know, in traditional paper and
pen exams, the examinees will be provided with a question paper and blank
answer sheet to write on, for a fixed interval of time. In online/e–exams, the
following procedure is carried out:
 The students will be allotted an User ID and Password. The same is
entered in the pre-arranged computer ready software. Thus students will
get access only if they enter correct user name and password.
 As the student can access the examination software by entering username
and password, the examination time starts; time will be displayed at a visible
position in the computer screen. So students have to Be Ready
Themselves to attempt the questions. Unlike in conventional examination,
extra time will not be granted.
 Attempt questions and enter the answers by clicking ‘mouse’. Unless the
students click mouse and thereafter ‘Save and Next Button is pressed,
the answers will not be recorded. This is one of the important steps students
have to remember in online /e-exams; mouse clicking and saving the answers
as they proceed.
 Conventional examination has the option of attempting questions at random
but in online/e-exams; ‘Sequential Move’ is preferred as forth-back
movement is time consuming. Thus attempt questions in sequential manner
to save time but students can skip questions (if they don’t know the answer)
and can be attempted at a later stage
 Students can proceed in a sequential manner and the progress of attending
exam will be displayed; may be question wise or percentage mode. Thus
online exams/e-exams shows the progress of examination, and students
would get the option of ‘Assessing their Progress’.
 The final step in online/e-exams is very important; never forget to Click
Submit Button. Unless submission is done by clicking mouse, the answers
will not be recorded in data base.
Multiple software’s/applications, both paid and free are available. You can use
them to develop online/e-exams. You should search the best available options
and use some of them in your teaching practice or sessions in your classroom.
Home page of some of the online/e-exams creating websites is given as follows:
Figure 8.4: Home pages of online/e-exams creating websites
Source:https://www.classmarker.com/Source:https://www.onlineexambuilder.com 71
Source:http://speedexam.net/Source: https://exambuilder.com/
(Source: http://www.quiz-creator.com; and http://www.flubaroo.com)
Activity 3
Select any free online or e-exam creator website/software and prepare
an e-exam for the children of your class. Try them in your class
and identify the difficulties you have faced in developing and
administering it.
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Features of online/e-examination: As you know, pen and paper examinations

require well constructed plans for implementation. Similarly, online and e-exams
also need to be planned well in advance before they are put into practice. Online
and e-exams should have the following features:
 Examination instructions: The duration, marks allotted for each section/
question, class, mode of answering, type of questions, etc. must be clearly
72 mentioned.
 Registration: Students attempting online and e-exams are required to ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
register or open an account, where in the questions to test their learning
will be posted. Either the examination will be available online which can
be assessed by entering their login password or else the examiner would
set the questions which can be only attempted by the students.
 Valid time duration of the examination: The examination will be valid
for a fixed time afterwards it is unavailable. This is because the pattern
of the exam is set in such a way that the students will not get extra time
to attempt question unlike in the traditional examination.
 Time reminder: As the students progress in answering, the system itself
will generate warnings about the duration of the time left, questions
unattended or partially attempted and so on. Such prompts act as reminders
for students to complete the examination on time.
 Submission of answers: Students can submit answers as a whole or a
single question at a time. In both the cases before submitting the answer
warning signs would be generated : whether answering is complete, would
they like to modify answers, and so on. This helps students in rechecking
their answers.
 Declaration of results: There are two options as children submit answer.
The system may generate the status of answering (whether the answer is
right or wrong), or else after submitting the answers of all the questions,
the result may appear as a whole.
Advantages of onli]ne/e-examination: It is a fact that lots of preparations
are required to conduct paper-pen examinations such as preparing schedule of
examinations, development of question papers, arrangement of examination halls,
evaluation of answer scripts, declaration of results, arrangement of human power,
etc. Even after spending a great deal of time and effort, complaints may arise.
In such a situation, online and e-examinations have great relevance. The following
are some of the advantages of online/e-examinations:
 Human errors are minimal in e-exams. In conventional exams, the possibility
to commit mistakes is high while evaluating answer scripts, entering evaluated
grades, identifying malpractices, etc. On the other hand most of the activities
in e-exams are digital in nature and hence errors are minimal.
 The habit of indulging in malpractices in multiple ways can be eliminated.
As children are provided with computer or other electronic gadgets to
attempt examinations, the possibility of malpractices is minimum.
 The conventional exams carry question papers and answer sheets to
distant places and within the examination halls but doesn’t happen in online/
e-examinations. Thus the physical movement of examination materials is less
for online exam.
 The number of the human power required is less in online examinations.
Conventional examinations require lots of human power in organising but
online/exams require less human power.
 The workload in the conduct of conventional examinations is vast such as
in setting question papers, executing of examinations, evaluating answer
sheets and so on. While online/exams entail less workload since distribution
of question papers is done once, evaluation and declaration of result is
ICT based and so on. 73
Techniques and Tools of Disadvantages of online/e-examination : Let us now discuss the disadvantages
of online/e-exams. As we know, in the digital era many of the educational
institutions and government agencies utilize technology. But the fact is that
technology has some disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages of online/e-
exams are as follows:
 The competence is in developing online/e-exams which many of the
stakeholders associated with the conduct of e-exams lack.
 Online/e-exams require specialised settings and facilities to conduct, a
cumbersome job for institutions and teachers.
 Chances of technical error in electronic machines are expected and as a
result examinations may fail.
 The problems of viruses/bugs/internet attacks in software are a threat for
online/e-examinations.
 Children need to be trained in attempting online/e-examinations.
 The cost involved in online/e-exams is higher and creates problems on the
part of institutions/organisations.
unit.
5. Discuss the procedures followed in organising online/e-examinations.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
8.7 LEARNERS’ E-PORTFOLIOAND E-RUBRICS

Generally the schools keep record of marks scored by the children in different
subjects. In addition to that, data about their family background, physical
records, involvement and achievement in extracurricular activities, etc., are
also recorded. Why do we collect such details? No doubt, it is part of
evaluation/assessment. The grades/ marks represent children’s performance.
At present, continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) is practiced in
schools in which students are continuously assessed all through the academic
sessions on various parameters. Parameters such as learning performance,
participation in co-curricular activities, involvement in various activities of the
school, etc., are continuously assessed. Thus, the assessment is comprehensive
and continuous.
The multiple data relating to a student is recorded systematically. Portfolios
document learning performance, activities undertaken, details of participation in
co-curricular activities and other relevant data concerning the student
throughout the session. Such record is highly useful in evaluating the student’s
performance during his/her schooling. Since we emphasis the culture of
74 digital teaching-learning, portfolios are replaced with e-portfolios. What are
e-portfolios? “e-portfolios is a valuable learning and assessment tool. An ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
e-portfolio is a digitized collection of artifacts including demonstrations,
resources, and accomplishments that represent an individual, group, or
institution. This collection can be comprised of text based, graphic, or
multimedia elements archived on a website or on other electronic media
such as CD-ROM or DVD. An e-portfolio is more than a simple collection
of data-it can also serve as an administrative tool to manage and organise
work created with different applications and to control who can see the
work. E-portfolios encourage personal reflection and often involve the
exchange of ideas and feedback” (Lorenzo and Ittelson, 2005).
E-portfolio also known as ‘digital portfolio’ or ‘online portfolio’ is the record
of digital works performed by the student. The digital works include text material
prepared in Microsoft word software/PDF or other application software’s, video/
audio clips, digital images, digital reports, blog entries, comments posted in
discussion for a power point presentations, etc. The digital creations of an
individual when stored in digital formats either in online operated portfolio or
any digital resources represent an e-portfolio. E-portfolio is the latest trends
in teaching –learning as it is an immense tool for evaluating students’ performance.
By looking at the digital collection, teacher would be able to judge the
performance of learning.
Figure 8.5: Artifacts of e-portfolio
(Source: http://www.informationweek.com/software/7-ways-to-create-e-
portfolios/d/d-id/1110673)
As we know, conventional portfolio is a collection of different non-digital works

of a student, such as assignments, reports and so on; while e-portfolios are
his/her digital creations like a presentation, project, collection of photography,
etc. Why are e-portfolios important in education? First, e-portfolio is a tool
for assessment and evaluation. The record of activities performed by the students
is accumulated in e-portfolios and at a later stage they are used to judge their
performance. Secondly, e-portfolios act as tool for self evaluation. The digital
constructions of students will give themselves a status of their performance in
various activities. For example, a video clip submitted by a student can be viewed
at a later stage, and errors can be identified. Those mistakes can be improved
75
Techniques and Tools of while developing a video clip second time. Third, it is an evidence of
children’s work. Many a times, records are being missed in schools but in
case of e-portfolios, the digital works are stored in digital formats and the chances
of missing them are fairly low.
As a teacher, you would be more interested in gaining knowledge about the
ways of developing e-portfolios. The questions might come to your mind such
as: How e-portfolios are developed? Is there any software to develop e-
portfolio? What digital collections would be incorporated in e-portfolio, and so
on. Developing an e-portfolio is not a burdensome activity. As you know, today
the teaching-learning process engages children in multiple activities, such as
conducting a project, preparing assignments, etc. To prepare the assignments
children refer different website, download images, etc. Then they prepare the
text in MS word or such application softwares. So here, the assignment prepared
by the student is in digital form and the same could be included in the e-portfolio
of that particular student. There are number of tools/softwares (free/paid and
offline/online), where you can place the digital formations of your students. To
create e-portfolio, firstly you have to signup in any particular website. This will
generate your account on that particular website. Thereafter, you can start
recording the digital works of your children. Some websites are given below
(Also the screen shots of home page of some of these websites).
 www.rcampus.com
 www.pebblepad.co.uk
 www.portfoliogen.com
 www.mahara.org
 www.digication.com
 www.taskstream.com
 www.pebblelearning.com
 www.myefolio.com
 www.foliotek.com
 www.epsilen.com
 www.foliospaces.org
Figure 8.6: Commercial/Open Source E-Portfolio Creation Tools/Websites
76 Source: http://www.rcampus.com/ Source: http://www.pebblepad.co.uk/

ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
Source: https://mahara.org/Source: http://www.portfoliogen.com/
Activity 4
Select a free e- portfolio creator (even google apps) and develop
one e-portfolio suitable for children of your class. Describe the
process that you have carried out in developing e-portfolio.
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
77
Techniques and Tools of Types of e-portfolios: As discussed in preceding sub-sections, e-portfolios are
also known as digital portfolios, web portfolios and online portfolios. Basically
the nomenclature is based on the format of portfolios. Generally, online portfolio
functions with the help of internet while other formats are internet independent.
Based on the functions of e-portfolios, they are classified into three; developmental
(or working), assessment and showcase.
 Developmental (working) e-portfolios: These e-portfolios collect and
record students’ activities. For example, students are assigned a project
of two months as a learning activity. During the period of the project, they
have to submit short reports every 25 days in MS Word format. Such
a digital report will be stored in the database of e-portfolio. Thus
developmental e-portfolios record activities over a period of time. The
primary objective of recording the progress is to communicate the progress
to the students and the teachers.
 Assessment e-portfolios: These e-portfolios collect and record children’s
activities for the entire duration of the programme/course. The primary
objective is to assess and judge the competency of children in specific
skills/ courses and programmes. These portfolios are submitted for assessing
and evaluating the performance in a learning activity/programme. For
example, digital formats of assignments in a single subject submitted during
his/her studies in eighth class.
 Showcase e-portfolios: These portfolios exhibit exceptional works/skills
of an individual. This may include works in preparing reports, inserting
graphic/pictures in preparing write-ups, development of quality video/audio
clips and so on. These portfolios happen to judge one’s performance,
selection to a job, etc. Thus, as the name indicates, showcase e-portfolios
are images on individual persona.

unit.
6. Define e-portfolio? Discuss the artefacts ‘recorded in e-portfolios.
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
E-Rubric: During learning, children participate in various activities, which are

assessed to judge their performance. Generally achievement tests are employed
in evaluating the children. What is rubric? Rubric is a set of guidelines on which
students’ performance is assessed. A rubric is a unified criteria for students’
work that includes descriptions of the level of performance. Thus a rubric will
have few set criteria and description of levels of performance for those criteria.
Rubric is more descriptive in nature such that, the skills to be evaluated are
described as various levels and that the level of the students is identified for
that particular skill. Even though descriptive, the level of performance is used
in judging the performance of individual. Thus the main purpose of rubric is
to assess the performance. For example, if you aspire to measure the skill of
78 children in using a thermometer to read temperature; the rubric prepared for
the same would include skills such as holding thermometer, measuring temperature, ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
recording the reading and so on. Thus the parameters included in rubric are
holding thermometer, measuring temperature, recording the reading and so on.
To develop rubric, the assessment levels such as very poor, poor, average, good,
very good for any particular parameter will be assessed (See Table 8.1). You
can also refer Unit-7 of this Block. These parameters are developed as template
of rubric. For example, the rubric template would look like the following:
Table 8.1: Rubric Template

Parameter Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Total
(Very (Poor) (Average) (Good) (Very Score
Poor) Good)
Holding
Thermometer
Measuring
temperature
Recording
Reading
Now let us understand e-rubric. In a digital learning atmosphere, the rubric is

prepared in digital format. The rubric that we have discussed above (Table 1)
is prepared in non-digital format (may be in normal paper or other non-digital
resources). While e-rubric (electronic-rubric) is prepared by any digital means.
Generally, e-rubrics are prepared with the help of rubric creators/websites/ online
tools, etc. The e-rubrics are stored in either computers, mobiles, CD-ROMs,
hard drives or any storage devices, which can be retrieved and manipulations
are possible at any time. Thus whenever a task is assigned, the teacher would
prepare its rubric template and the performance level will be recorded against
each criteria. At the completion of task, the rubric will be used to assess the
performance of the student.
As a teacher, you may be interested in gauging information on tools used to
develop e-rubrics. Similar to e-portfolios, you may find websites either paid/
free (commercial/non-commercial; open source), which may be employed to
develop e-rubrics. Few such websites are mentioned below:
 http://rubistar.4teachers.org
 http://www.assessmentfocus.com
 http://www.rcampus.com
 http://www.teach-nology.com
 http://www.learner.org
 http://www.essaytagger.com
 http://www.edudemic.com
 http://edtechteacher.org
79
\ Figure 8.7: Home page of websites used for creating e-rubric
(Source: http://rubistar.4teachers.org.,http://www.assessmentfocus.com/.,
80 http://www.rcampus.com/., http://www.teach-nology.com)
Importance of e-rubric : We have discussed the basic purpose of building ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
of e-rubric. Basically, e-rubric helps us evaluating a students’ performance. Let
us elaborate its importance in the teaching learning and evaluation process. In
a teacher’s point of view, e- rubric is a tool to set his learning objectives. While
deciding on the topic or activity to be transacted, he/she should think of the
learning objectives and skills to be developed among students. Accordingly
different criteria will be developed and recorded in the e-rubric template. Later,
the students will be evaluated based on the e-rubric and that will help you,
as a teacher to know the performance of the students. This will also help you
to reflect on your teaching process. In the case of students, e-rubric is an
instrument for self reflection. While teacher identifies the criterion for any
particular learning activity/task, the same could also be discussed with students.
Thus students are aware of the criteria based on which they are going to be
assessed. Thus as students proceed with the task, they would pay attention
on the criteria leading to development of learning skills as desired by the teacher.
Such a process provides scope for students’ self-reflection and to become aware
of their own learning.
Steps to Create E-Rubric
As we have discussed, e-rubric is an effective tool to assess children’s
performance. Generally teachers can prepare two types of e-rubric; one general
e-rubric and the other specific e-rubric. In general e- rubric, general activities
and its criterion will be included. For example, writing an assignment; in writing
assignment, the criterion includes, writing a good introduction, body (content),
conclusion, supporting examples, figures and so on. Irrespective of the subject,
the format followed in writing assignment remains the same. In specific e-rubric,
criterion for specific activities is included. For instance, performing experiment
in a chemistry laboratory. In the laboratory, each student is required to perform
certain activities; may be mixing chemical in a specific proportion, taking
measurements and so on. Such tasks are specific tasks and each student is
supposed to develop those specific skills. The following steps should be used
to develop an e-rubric.
i. Select the learning activity from your subject of teaching. It can be either
general or specific in nature
ii. List the criterion relating to the learning activity. At this stage, children may
also be encouraged to suggest criterion.
iii. Decide levels for each criterion ranging in different modes; can be 1 to
5, low to high, minimum to maximum, poor to high and so on. A five
point level would be reasonable for assessing children on varied tasks.
iv. Develop re-rubric template. The e-rubric template will show the criterion
and different levels for specific or general learning activity. You may also
leave a column for students to write their comments. The e-rubric can also
be shared with students.
v. Execute the learning activity and record scores against each criterion in
the e-rubric template.
vi. Asses and evaluate children’s performance based on the scoring in e-
rubric.
vii. If required, revise the e-rubric based on the feedback and performance
of children. 81
Assessment and Evaluation Activity 5
Identify a task of your choice and develop its criterion in a rubric
template. Carryout the task in your class and record the level of
children against each criterion.
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................

b) Compare your answers with the one given at the end of the
unit.
7. What is e-rubric? Why e-rubrics are important for students?
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
8. Describe the steps for developing an e-rubric.

.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
.........................................................................................................
8.8 USE OF ICT TOOLS FOR PREPARING TESTS

ANDANALYZING RESULTS
In the earlier section, you have studied that ICT has immense opportunities in
assessment and evaluation. Till now we have discussed, various ICT resources,
online/e-examination, e-portfolio and e-rubric. As a result, today, the potential
of ICT is being explored in multiple ways. In this Section we will discuss specific
tools, websites and resources which can be used to construct questionnaires
and tools that have inbuilt options to analyse test results.
ICT may be employed at three stages for assessing children, they are:
 before beginning of the teaching session,
 during the teaching session, and
 after the teaching session.
In the beginning, assessment will help you to identify the learning level of children,
while during teaching session, it will give you an idea of how far children have
achieved learning objectives and at the end, assessment helps to find out the
82 achievement of the learning objectives. As we have discussed earlier, teachers
have important role in utilizing ICTs. It is up to the teacher to select appropriate ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
technology or tool to assess children at various levels of teaching. You can make
use of mobile technology to assess children’s learning in the beginning or during
teaching session. Even computer made tests can also be employed. At the end
of the teaching session, computer made tests and online or e-exams are preferred.
The following websites (home page of some of the websites are also given
in Figure 8.8) can be used to create test of your choice.
Commercial website Free website
https://www.classmarker.com/ http://www.fiftysneakers.com/
http://www.contentgenerator.net/
http://www.easytestmaker.com/ http://funnelbrain.com/
http://elearningbrothers.com/
http://www.ecomscotland.com/ http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/
http://www.exambuddy.com/
https://www.igneon.com/ http://www.kubbu.com/
http://www.mygradebook.com/
http://www.cram.com/
https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/
http://www.proprofs.com/quiz -school/ https://quizslides.com/
http://www.questiontools.com/
http://www.questionwriter.com/ https://www.studyblue.com/
https://www.quia.com/web
http://www.quiz-builder.com/ http://www.btl.com/surpass/
http://ww17.quizlet.cm/
http://www.respondus.com/ http://www.schoolsonic.com/
http://www.helpteaching.com/
http://www.qarbon.com/ http://www.learnclick.com/
http://eng.smartlite.it/
https://yacapaca.com/ http://www.mobilestudy.org/
83
Figure 8.8 : Commercial and free websites for ICT tools

In conventional tests, answers are written on papers while ICT tests employ
mainly computers. A teacher has to devote lot of his/her time to conduct
conventional examinations. In the case of computer made tests, the time devoted
is considerably less. Let us understand as to how the time gets reduced in
organization of the ICT based of tests. To substantiate, let us pick a free tool
from the list given in Figure 8, http://www.learnclick.com/. Learnclick is free
application software that provides choices in developing tests of varied nature.
You will find options, such as Blank Boxes and Dropdowns, Generated
Dropdowns, Drag and Drop, Matching, Multiple Choice (one answer correct),
Checkboxes (several answers correct), Essay (open-ended question), Description,
etc. As you browse ‘learnclick’, the homepage will appear where you will find
sub-links to create tests. The screen shot is given in Figure 8.9:
Figure 8.9 : Learnclick – A free application software

84 (Source: http://www.learnclick.com/)
After opening the home, click on the sub link “Create Quizzes, which will take ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
you to another window as shown below.
Figure 8.10 : Sub-link of Learnclick website to create quiz
Thereafter, you may insert questions and it may be distributed to your students
for answering. After attempting the test, the system itself will evaluate and test
results will be displayed. Closer screen shots are given below:
85
Figure 8.11 : Closer screen shots of Mix-Quiz
Those tools mentioned above are specially designed to create tests/questionnaires/

quizzes. In addition to these Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc. can also be
used in developing tests. Many e-learning softwares, Learning Management
Systems (LMS), survey tools, e-contents, blogs, wikis, e-books, chat services,
virtual classrooms, e-mails, PDF readers, concept maps, etc. also have many
inbuilt features to test performance of the students. Let us discuss few of them.
You are aware that Microsoft Power Point is extensively used software for
presentations. Let us see, how PowerPoint is used to develop tests. Think of
a classroom situation. Ms Aparna, a secondary school teacher is teaching the
concept of ‘force’. After teaching the concept, she tried to check ‘whether
children have grasped the concept or not. For this, she prepared a multiple
choice test in Power Point. The screen shots of the test are given below. The
test is prepared in three slides. The first slide contains the question and four
options which the student has to pick out the correct option by pressing the
button given against each option. As the button is pressed, it will then jump
either to second or third slide which will further indicate whether the option
chosen by student is right or wrong. If it is wrong, the children have to press
the button given in the slide, which will resume to the very first slide.
86
ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
Which among the following is not
an example of force?
is
Figure 8.12 : Multiple choice test item in power point
Activity 6
i) How will you use blogs for evaluating your children’s

performance? Suggest a plan.
ii) Develop a test in PowerPoint software and execute it in your
classroom. Prepare a report on the difficulties faced by you in
executing the test in your class.
..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
8.9 LET US SUM UP

As you have studied, use of ICT in the process of teaching-learning and
assessment is not an isolated activity but it is highly appreciated when ICT
becomes an integral part of the process. NCF, 2005 also highlighted such aspect
that ICT should be an integral part of teaching-learning process and assessment
(refer Unit1 and 2 of Block-1 of this Course). 87
Techniques and Tools of In this Unit, we have discussed the importance of ICT in assessing students’
performance and also role of the teacher in technology-based evaluation. You
have also learnt in this Unit about the concept of online/e-examination and its
use. E-portfolio and e-rubrics are used as assessment tools in our school system.
In this Unit, the concept and the process of developing e-portfolio and e-rubrics
are also discussed and the online sources for developing portfolio and rubric
have been highlighted. The Unit ends with a discussion on various application
softwares/tools/websites such as content generator, learnclick, respondus, help
teaching, etc. which are useful for the creation of online tools and tests. As
a teacher, you can try to develop the online tools on any subject and topic
of your choice as per the list of online sources given in this Unit.

Chen, H.L, and T. Penny Light, (2010).Electronic Portfolios and Student
Success: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Learning, Washington: Association of
American Colleges and Universities.
Clark, J. Elizabeth, (2010). “The Digital Imperative: Making the Case for a
21st CenturyPedagogy,” Computers and Composition, 27.1 (2010): 27-35.
Susan M.B.,& Anthony J.(2008).Assessment and Grading in Classrooms (p.
201).Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Websites Referred
http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC76971.pdf
http://www.teindia.nic.in/e9-tm/Files/ICT_Documents/Alternative_paradigm-
%20ICT-integrated-assessment-constructivist-perspective.pdf
http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/implementing-it/using.htm
https://elearningindustry.com/free-testing-tools-for-online-education
https://www.classmarker.com/
https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/
http://speedexam.net/
https://exambuilder.com/
http://www.quiz-creator.com
http://www.flubaroo.com/
?utm_campaign=Listly&utm_medium=list&utm_source=listly
http://www.rcampus.com/index.cfm
http://www.pebblepad.co.uk/
https://mahara.org/
http://www.portfoliogen.com/
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
http://www.assessmentfocus.com/rubrics-rubric-makers.php
88
http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm ICT Based Assessment
and Evaluation
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/
http://www.contentgenerator.net/
http://c4lpt.co.uk/
http://www.learnclick.com/
http://www.respondus.com/products/respondus/index.shtml
http://www.helpteaching.com/create.htm
http://www.btl.com/surpass/
https://moodle.org/
https://www.edmodo.com/
http://anz.blackboard.com/
https://classroom.google.com/h
https://hotpot.uvic.ca/

1. Because it is time saving, economical, interesting, and motivating.
2. Diagnostic evaluation is conducted to know the learning difficulties and
accordingly to provide remedial instructions. Formative evaluation is used
to know the learning progress whereas summative evaluation is used for
grading and certification of the students.
3. Develop an e-content on any topic. Include multiple choice questions in
it. Let students attempt it. (You may use e-content developing software
like eXe, etc)
4. To select appropriate technology considering weightage to pedagogy and
content and standard of teaching
5. Allotting user ID and password, attempting questions, saving answers,
submitting answers, etc.
6. E-portfolio is digitized collection of artefacts including demonstrations,
resources, and accomplishments that represent an individual, group, or
institution. Collection of digital work of any individual/student, images, pdf,
audio-video, etc. For the rest of the answer, refer Figure 8.5.
7. Rubric prepared in digital format is called e-rubric. It helps students to
asses their learning.
8. Select learning activity, identify the criterion for that learning activity, assign
levels for each criterion, develop rubric template, Use rubric to assess
children’s learning for that particular activity.
89

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BES-127

Programme Coordinators: Prof Saroj Pandey, (From April, 2017) and

Block 2 Techniques and Tools of Assessment and Evaluation

Block 3 Learner’s Evaluation

Block 4 Analysing and Interpreting Learner’s Performance

5.5 Assessment of Group Processes

5.6 Let Us Sum Up

5.3 PURPOSE OFASSESSMENT AND

5.4 TECHNIQUES OFASSESSMENT AND

Example: This problem is designed to help students understand the

Check Your Progress 2

Assignments are teacher-assigned task that students are expected to complete

5.4.4 Observation Technique

5.4.5 Peer Assessment

Note : a) Write your answer in the space given below.

5.4.6 Sociometric Technique

Figure 5.2: Sociogram Showing Pattern of Choices

Sociometric technique as an assessment technique: You might be thinking

Use of portfolios is consistent with reflective teaching. There is an ongoing

5.4.8 Project Work

Descriptive Excellent VeryGood Good Poor

Different The content is The content is Content has Content is

Maps Maps are Maps are Maps are No maps are

Relevance of Content is up- Content is Content lacks No up-to-date

Use the Students Students Students Students do not

Group All the The Some No group

Presentation Complete Descriptions Incomplete Improper

Validation of Multiple Validation Efforts are There is no

Develop a The plan is The plan is The plan is The plan

5.4.10 School Club Activities

5.5 ASSESSMENT OF GROUP PROCESSES

5.5.1 Cooperative Learning and Social Skills

5.5.2 Seminar and Report as Assessment Techniques

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5.6 LET US SUM UP

5.7 REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

5.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

6.4 Essential Criteria of an Effective Tool of Evaluation

6.5 Let Us Sum Up

6.3.1 Self-made and Standardized Tools

6.3.2 Difference between Self-made and Standardized Tool

The purpose of teacher-made tool is to The purpose of standardized tool is to admit

The rigorous procedures of tool The complete procedure of test

No statistical techniques are used to Rigorous statistical methods are used to

The following learning points emerge to summarize the above table :

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i. Reliability refers to the results obtained with an evaluation instrument

Methods or techniques of reliability : As per Singh (2002), there are three

Test Single form

Time interval Ideally 15 days to 6 Months

Determining reliability By employing correlation statistics

Decision Reliable if correlation coefficient is

Threat of error Error of ‘carry over effect’, ‘memory

Suggestion Highly used method as it is easy to determine

Spearman’s Rank Difference Method (ρ)

ρ = Is called as ‘rho’, means correlation in test-retest method.

(ii) Parallel-form Reliability : Because of the error factors in test-retest

rtt = Reliability of the whole test

Table 6.6 reveals the conditions of using rational equivalence method in

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Figure 6.1: Validity and Reliability

From the definitions of validity, let us try to understand the characteristics of

As presented in Table 6.7, the content validity of a test depends upon as to